Hero Mountain
by Kira the Great
Summary: Peace was finally obtained in the year A.C. 199, but when Heero and the others are contacted by a man called Doc and a mysterious experiment appears before them, they may have no choice other than to fight for what they lost.
1. Part One: The Experiment 006

Author's Note: This story is symbolic to my escaping something that I've held onto for the past three and a half years, and have just recently been able to escape from. To those of you who know me, and have known me, it actually has nothing to do with Nathan, haha. I just like him as a character (as he's been one since I met him…).

Hero Mountain

Part One: The Experiment 006

_Date: November 21, A.C. 199_

_Place: G-Colony Cluster, Apartment of Trowa Barton_

Trowa lifted his head, distracted from his studies for a split second. He could have sworn that he had heard his monitor beep at him. The blasted laptop was a constant bother, but it never had beeped quite like _that_ before.

Deciding that it was, indeed, a mere mishap, he turned back to the heavy book before him on quantum mechanics. He never liked the topic, and was only subject to the pain of the book because of his chosen major. This was one of the many times he found himself wishing Heero Yuy was there to help him.

_Be-doop._

He jumped. There it was again! He stood and walked over to the computer, rubbing the mouse pad to awaken the screen. There was a moment where nothing happened, then the screen flickered, and a face appeared.

To the devil! It was Heero Yuy, the old pilot of Gundam 01.

"Heero…" Trowa whispered, his visible eye widening significantly. He quickly donned his façade, hiding his surprise. "Is everything okay?"

"No, it's not," Heero, as always, was direct. "I got a letter from someone…"

"Relena?"

"No."

"Duo, then?"

"No."

"…then who?"

Heero pulled a typed letter from his desk, scanned it over, and replied in his drone-like tone, "_Doc_."

"You mean Doctor J?"

Heero shook his head, his shaggy hair falling around his cold eyes. "No, I don't think so."

"Heero, you need to be straight-forward," Trowa said, leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "What does the letter _say_?"

"_Heero Yuy, I realize you and your four companions have not fought in two years, and that you have all retired, but I would greatly enjoy your company. Please contact the others, 02, 03, 04, and 05, and request that they also come with you. I believe I have something that may interest you. I will have an escort meet you at the New Lunar Base on noon on the 24th of November. His name is below._" He lowered the letter. "It's just signed _Doc_ at the bottom."

"Did he give you an address?"

He nodded once, firmly.

"Have you contacted the others?"

Again, a nod.

"What did they say?"

"They all agreed we decide this as a group," he replied.

"Sounds like a good idea."

"We're going to meet on Earth this Sunday," Heero said. "Where we won't be bothered by the government."

"Antarctica?"

A single nod.

"What time?"

"Duo requested we meet sometime in the afternoon, after all, it is very far south of any other base in Antarctica."

"They like to keep the memories buried, don't they?"

"Yeah."

Trowa quirked an eyebrow, as Heero had never actually answered his first question.

"Two o'clock," Heero said softly. "Can we expect you?"

The taller nodded. "Yeah, but I'll have to leave tonight."

"So will we."

"When did you get the letter?"

"This afternoon."

"You work fast."

"So do they. The date on the header is yesterday's."

Trowa's eyes widened again at this. "Where did it originate from?"

"The New Lunar Base."

"They do work fast, then."

"We'll have to work faster."

"I'll see you there."

Heero only nodded once, and the transmission ended.

Trowa leaned back in the chair, his cinnamon bangs falling to the side of his face. He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking, eyes focused on the white ceiling of his apartment.

He was the oldest of the group, now twenty-one. He, much like the others, was speeding through college. It was his last year of graduate school. They had all but finished their undergraduate years within the first four semesters of college.

Heero had majored in astrophysics, unsurprisingly, with a robotics minor. He was living on a colony in the L sector, and as far as Trowa and the others knew, he lived alone. He had a decent job working for the government.

Duo was another story. He had glided through his undergraduate studies like the others in a mere two years, finishing assignments before the class had even reached the subject, and then moving to the next class up. He had then jumped back and forth between fields in his graduate studies as an engineer, only to end up volunteering most of his time to an orphanage near his dwelling in the H sector. His "real job" paid him enough to live off of, and even paid him enough to give some to the orphanage. He was very happy, needless to say.

Quatre had become a great success, working as a diplomat in international affairs, finally ending most of the wars in the Middle East and other problems in many of the heavily suffering countries on Earth. He, of course, never stayed in the same place for very long, as he had to go to a new meeting almost three times a month. As far as Trowa knew, he was happiest being able to help out where he was most needed.

Trowa smiled. While Quatre was working on the bigger problems of peace, Duo was helping out where he could with the smaller stuff. Not to say that he was alone and didn't have influence. WuFei was working with Sally on post-war operations. After all, it _had_ only been two years since the five of them had been freed from their stony prisons as soldiers. WuFei had become a heavy pacifist and was often working with Quatre on world-issues and what they might be able to do about certain post-war problems.

Trowa, well, he wasn't sure where he was going with his life. He was desired in nearly any field he chose, same with the others. Their reputation as superior soldiers and their reliability made them worth more than any monetary value could impose.

For a while, he had studied a number of subjects, going from one to the next. Everything interested him now that he didn't have to worry about death or being found out. Catherine had begged him to stay with her and the circus, but Trowa had refused, promising to return when he had "found himself."

As of the moment, he was working on refining his programming career. He was very interested in robotics, as most of them were, but also found biology and languages fascinating. There lay the problem: He wanted to do everything.

Finally, he had settled for a degree in biomechanical programming with a minor degree in mathematics. And, over on the desk, was the fruit of his labor. The bruise on his apple of pride. Quantum mechanics.

Why he disliked the subject, he wasn't sure.

Trowa leaned forward and looked at the blank screen of his laptop. Someone named _Doc_ had contacted Heero, knowing that he would be able to contact the other four pilots through him.

The thought made Trowa shudder. It wasn't _difficult_ to contact Heero. He was, after all, a very important person. But, then again, it wasn't hard to contact the others, either. Maybe Quatre and WuFei, as they were out of their homes very often, but still…

The thought bothered him.

Who _was_ this Doc person, and why did he want to meet them?

What did he have for them?

When the questions went in perpetual circles, Trowa gave up and left the room to pack. School would have to wait, at least until Monday. Which wasn't too bad, he supposed, as it was Friday evening.

After he had packed, Trowa contacted Earth-Lines, reserving a seat for the ten o'clock flight. Once the reservation was confirmed, he packed up his computer and left.

It would be an interesting weekend.

_Date: November 23, A.C. 199_

_Place: Dead Base, Antarctica, Earth_

"Glad to see you could make it," Heero said, watching as the other four approached him right on time. He looked at each in turn. The past two years had treated them better than those proceeding. "As you all know, I brought you here so that we could discuss a letter I received from this _Doc_.

"He wants us to meet an escort at the New Lunar Base tomorrow at high noon," Heero continued. "Apparently he has something that he believes can benefit us."

"Have you been able to contact him?" Quatre asked, his hands stuffed into his pockets. For some reason, the dead base felt ten times colder than normal.

"No," Heero replied with a shake of his head. "If he's anything like Doctor J, then he'll just expect us to show up, whether or not we really want to go."

"Sounds like he's pleasant enough," Duo said bitterly. The memories of the war and the brief revolt were not happy ones.

"Do you think he might have been in lead with the others?" WuFei asked cautiously. "After all, he _is_ going by the title of _Doctor_."

All eyes shifted from the young man to Heero. He shook his head. "I don't know. I only wish I did."

"Now that we've gone over all of the facts, let's decide!" Duo said with mock-cheer. For some reason, he had chosen today to be especially cynical. Maybe it was the letter, maybe it wasn't.

"Trowa?" Heero looked over at the old pilot of 03. "What do you think?"

"He must have been in lead with the other doctor's at some point," Trowa replied calmly. "How else would he know who to contact to get all of us together?"

Heero nodded, though he didn't look surprised at Trowa's assumption. He had probably guessed as much already. "So now the question is what we do."

"Even if we deny his invitation, there's no guarantee that he'll leave us alone," Trowa pointed out. "If he's anything like the others…"

He let the sentence hang.

"We should vote," rely on Quatre to come up with the democratic solution. "We don't need paper, just raise your hand."

Duo nodded. "Sounds good."

"The choices; go or stay," Heero said. "Those who want to stay?"

Trowa looked around. No one had raised their hand.

Duo laughed. "I think this is going to be unanimous."

"Go?"

They all lifted their hands into the frigid air.

"We must need a break from the mundane," Duo continued to snigger. "I mean, _wow_. We're way too bored if we're accepting this wacko's invitation."

"I just want to have a valid reason to skip my test on Monday," Trowa replied. Duo again laughed, but Trowa was serious. He really had no desire to take his exam on quantum mechanics.

"That's that," Heero said. He didn't sound disappointed. It was almost as if the thirst for adventure had returned to the five of them through him. "I made the reservations for us to head to the New Lunar Base. Be at the airport by seven o'clock tomorrow morning. We're Flight 25A."

The others nodded, not finding it odd at all that Heero had already reserved their seats. They were, even after all this time, a nucleus; a family in a sense.

The five of them headed back towards the Antarctica Base, discussing the new "mission"—they had nothing else to call it—and who this Doc person might be.

Trowa felt a slight nudge in his stomach. He had been right. The weekend had been an interesting one—and it seemed some of that interest was going to move on into the week.

_Date: November 24, A.C. 199_

_Place: New Lunar Base, Moon_

_Chhsssssshhhhh_.

The bay door slid open in the middle of outer space. The five ex-pilots waited for the craft to land in the bay of the New Lunar Base. They were impatient, though their features were of stone.

Finally they exited, each holding their own duffle bag of clothes and so on. They had learned a long time ago to travel light, and it seemed the habit had never really worn off.

"Where do we go from here?" WuFei asked, looking around.

"Yeah, it's not like we can just waltz onto the Old Base," Duo pointed out. "They have things there that they don't exactly want civilians to see."

"We're meeting someone to take us there," Heero reminded them. "Mc…something." He pulled the paper out of his pocket.

For a moment, Trowa was worried. Heero had always been able to remember things so easily before, but now he was constantly checking to see what it was he didn't remember. After the name was said, however, Trowa couldn't blame him for forgetting.

"McCazliuer," he said, trying the foreign word on his Japanese tongue.

"Well, there's a Mc_Callister_," Duo said, pointing over at a sign held above the crowd.

Trowa leaned over Heero's shoulder and gave a small nod. "That's him."

Heero nodded and strode forward, the others following in his wake. Beside the sign, leaning against a giant column, was a girl. She was playing with a yo-yo, snapping her gum. She had short dark purple hair and light skin, and was dressed in green military briefs and heavy boots.

"Are you McCallister?" Heero asked, relieving Trowa from his previous worries. Now that Heero knew how to pronounce the name, he was not soon to forget it.

She looked up, her blue eyes scanning the five ex-pilots expertly. "Who wants to know?"

"Ms. McCallister, we're the one's that your, um, _contractor_ contacted," Quatre said, utilizing his diplomatic skills to the best of his abilities. "We're not late, are we?"

"Hardly," the girl said, flipping her short hair away from her eyes with a toss of her head. "But I'm _not_ McCallister. Just call me Liz, okay?"

For a moment, the five boys didn't say anything. They all felt cold rather suddenly, believing they had made a grave mistake.

"Oh, shit, look, guys, it's not like I'm _not_ the one here to pick you up, I am," Liz said quickly. "McCallister couldn't make it. Doc needed him for some-bloody-shit-or-another." She rolled her eyes. "Anyways, come on, let's go. I feel like a dweeb with this thing." She took the sign and tossed it into the nearest garbage can, motioning for the others to follow her.

They had little choice. She had known who had written the letter without them mentioning the name.

They wound their way through the crowd, eventually coming to a man sitting behind a small desk. He was watching a door, obviously very bored. He was dressed in an E.P.A. uniform, which was very different from the briefs that Liz had been issued. She held up an ID and said in a cheery voice, "Hey there! Lizerina Million here. These dudes are with me."

"ID's?"

"Nah," she replied with a wink. "Relatives."

"I need some ID," he replied drawly.

"You never needed ID before!" she said hotly.

"Not when it's you and the others," he replied. "I mean, God, no one else goes to the Old Lunar Base except you three…"

"So? Look here, uh…"

"_Johnson_," Quatre supplied.

Liz nodded and continued, "Look here, Johnson, these five are here for reasons that your puny mind couldn't _possibly_ comprehend, so just let us through, alright?"

Johnson's face turned red and he snarled softly, "Look, _Million_, I don't give a damn who you work for. No ID, no admittance."

Liz grabbed the front of his uniform and pulled his forward. She hissed softly into his ear, "They're the Gundam pilots, okay? Doc needs them for a bit, and if I were you, I wouldn't piss him off. He might send the _experiment_ after you."

Johnson's face paled considerably as Liz released him. "Good to see you, gentlemen! Enjoy your stay with this lovely lady!" He pressed a button and the door slid open, revealing a dark parking lot that contained only one transporter.

Liz clapped him on the shoulder and said sincerely, "I'm glad we cleared that up. Now, _why_ did you let us through without ID?"

"Family, Ma'am!" he barked, as if Liz were his superior.

WuFei was very sure that she wasn't, but who was he to argue.

"And?"

"And the old man is very sick and needs to see his family before he passes on, Ma'am!"

"Exactly," grinning, she turned to the others. "Well, gents, let's go!" She walked through the door, the five ex-pilots following her.

Heero and Trowa exchanged glances. _Experiment?_

Liz hopped into the transporter and motioned for the others to follow. They each entered and took a seat, Liz dawning a headset and settling into the driver's seat.

"Everyone situated?"

No reply.

"Well, gents, keep all arms, legs, heads, necks, limbs, and other assorted body parts inside of the vehicle at all times while in motion! If you don't, let's just say it'll be one bloody mess!" she cackled and started the engine, the transporter jumping to life.

She said something into her headset and the bay doors opened. The transporter was sucked out into the breathless moonscape along with the oxygen that had been in the hanger.

Liz glided along the ground of the moon, avoiding craters and mounds of moon rock. Suddenly she slowed. "See that?" She pointed at an enormous pile of rubble. Amongst the rubble were a number of mobile suits. "That's Hero Mountain. Apparently, even now, the E.P.A. sees the old Oz organization and its soldiers as some kind of heroes." She seemed disgusted, even annoyed. Speeding up, she glided past the base of the mountain and off towards the Old Lunar Base.

Before long, they had reached the remains of the base. Liz brought the craft to a stop outside of a giant, plastic gate that led into the dome. She typed a number into the pad on the consol of the craft, and for a moment, there was nothing. Finally, a voice came in.

"_What?_"

"Let me in," Liz replied.

The voice over the intercom was male. "_Why?_"

"Damn it, McCallister, I ran your bloody errand, now let me in! I have the pilots with me, as if you don't bloody-well remember!"

"_Name and rank?_"

"Me, or the pilots?"

"_You_."

"Fuck you!" Liz snapped. "Put Doc on!"

"_He's busy_."

"God-fucking-damn-it!" she snarled. "Listen, you little pig, let me in or I'll set the experiment on you!"

Not even a laugh.

"_Name and rank?_"

"Lizerina Million, Lieutenant-pilot of mobile suit Razon," she replied, though she sounded very bitter. It was quickly becoming apparent to the five pilots that Liz and this McCallister guy didn't get along at all.

"_Age?_" It seemed he liked to quirk her; piss her off, if you will.

"_Nineteen!_" she all but snarled.

Duo had his hand up in front of his mouth, obviously trying to refrain from bursting into laughter. He was shaking, his eyes shut so tightly that tears were rolling from them.

WuFei was looking out at the dull moonscape, waiting patiently for them to be allowed onto the Old Base, and Quatre was talking to Heero about nothing in particular. Trowa was leaned back in his chair, listening to the man's voice over the com.

"_Number of passengers?_"

"Holy fucking shit, you know this one!" she screamed. "Five! I've got _five_ bloody passengers! Their names are _Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Winner, and WuFei Chang!_ _Now LET ME IN!_"

A few seconds of silence, then, "_I didn't catch the names_."

Liz kicked the com, screaming something in another language, one that none of the pilots recognized. Finally, the voice came again: "_You may enter_."

"_Bloody-fucking-A-FINALLY!_" Liz snapped in one breath. She eased the transporter through the slowly opening gates and waited on the other side as their environment was stabilized, and then glided through another set of gates.

She escorted the transporter around the base until they reached a particularly old building, one that looked to have been abandoned for a long time. Liz punched a button on the control panel and a set of doors opened, leading them into a docking room.

The ex-pilots all let out sounds of horror and surprise.

Inside of the docking station were two rows of mobile suits, one row on either side of them. Each row had four suits.

On the left were reconstructions of Wing Zero, Deathscythe, Heavyarms, and Sandrock. On the right were Shenlong and three other suits that none of the pilots recognized.

"My…my _God_," Duo gasped. He turned to Liz, who had parked the shuttle. "What the hell is this?"

The other pilots looked to her with similar expressions.

"I can't talk about it," Liz grumbled. "Look, I _told_ them not to do this, but they wouldn't have it, okay?" She looked around warily. "Let's go."

They left the shuttle and followed the girl across the tarmac, eyes running from one suit to the next. The reconstructions of their custom suits was immensely terrifying, especially to Heero. He felt his blood run cold at the vacant face of Wing Zero Custom as it gazed out at the line on the other side of the room.

The five ex-pilots and the girl exited the giant tarmac, entering a line of blinding white hallways. She walked along them, her boots squeaking on the white linoleum. A young man was waiting for them next to a set of doors.

He had vacant brown eyes, pale skin, and short, brown hair. He was dressed similarly to Liz.

"Listen, McCallister," Liz snarled, stalking towards him, "if you _ever_ do that again, I swear I'll—"

"Doc is waiting for you," he said, ignoring the girl completely. "Please, follow me."

He turned on his heel and walked through the doors. The five followed him, exchanging looks. Liz grumbled and brought up the rear, closing the doors behind her.

On the other side of the doors, the five ex-Gundam pilots found themselves in an oddly comfortable room. A man was already seated at a circular table fit for at least ten people. He motioned at the chairs and said in his old voice, "I'm glad you could make it. Please, feel free to sit."

They sat, being sure to keep the old man in sight.

"I'm sure you have a number of questions," he said with a quirky smirk. His gray hair was short, his shoulders hunched. "If you will proceed, I will answer them to the best of my ability."

"Were you and the other Doctors working together?" Heero asked, not needing to question if this man was Doc. He very obviously was.

Doc chuckled and replied, "Doctor J, Doctor S, Instructor H, Professor G, Master O and I, yes, we worked together. Or, at least, we were supposed to." He continued to smile, making Quatre feel especially uncomfortable. "As I'm sure you've noticed, I was not around when the five of you were sent to Earth."

"Why?" WuFei demanded.

Here, Doc's gray eyes shifted to McCallister and Liz. "My pilots weren't nearly ready, and their mobile suits were hardly finished."

"So you're saying there would have been _seven_ of us if you had been ready?" Duo asked.

"There were eight mobile suits in the hanger," Trowa said calmly. "Who was the eighth suit for?"

Doc's eyes flashed and he smirked. "That, my dear boy, is not for you to know."

"You contacted me, _us_," Heero said, "to come up here. We will leave if you don't answer our questions."

"Let's just say that it's an experiment gone wrong," Doc replied. "Now, then, any more questions?"

The five boys glanced around.

"Just so I know," Duo said, "why _exactly_ are we here?"

"I thought that was obvious."

"Well, obviously it's not."

"You're here because I invited you."

"What did you want to show us?" WuFei asked softly, dreading that he already knew the answer.

"Yourselves," he replied with purposeful vagueness, standing. "If that is all, McCallister and Million will show you to your rooms. Please, feel free to go anywhere you would like. Just remember, if the doors are locked, they are so for your safety and it would be unwise of you to attempt to go beyond them. You may contact me over the intercom system if you have any further questions. I bid you a good day." He bowed his head and left the room, limping slightly.

Heero, Duo, Quatre, WuFei and Trowa all stood, their eyes coming to rest on the two people that had been standing behind them silently.

"Follow me," McCallister said blankly, and he turned on his heel, leaving the room through the door they had come from.

Liz followed him, swinging her arms stiffly and walking without bending her knees. She was acting, to place it so bluntly, like a robot.

Duo chuckled at this and muttered to Quatre, "At least it won't be boring with her around here."

Quatre just grinned, and slowly it dawned on Duo what he had said.

"Ugh, Quat, you're worse than I am!" he said, but he held mischief in his violet eyes.

Finally, they stopped, McCallister motioning to a number of stainless steel doors.   
"These will be your rooms. The numbers on the doors coincide with your old pilot number. You will find everything you need inside. My room is 007, and Million's is 008, should you need us."

"What's in room 006?" Quatre questioned.

"There is no such room," he replied, and with a stiff bow, walked away.

Liz followed him with her eyes, and turned back to the others. "You'll have to forgive him. He isn't used to people actually being on base with us." She grinned and put her hands on her hips. "Now, then, he left out the important stuff! You each have your own bathroom. Keep it clean. We don't have a cleaning service, because we're too bloody poor. Just think of us as ghetto. Same goes for your room…and the most important thing of all—the kitchen and lounging rooms are right down the hall and up the stairs on your right." She grinned. "I'll have my famous gumbo ready for you guys about eighteen hundred. I trust you'll be there." With another toothy grin, she walked back towards the hanger.

Duo clutched his chest. "A woman after my own heart!"

WuFei just rolled his eyes, letting them land on the blank space where door 006 should have been. "Somehow I don't believe him."

"What are you talking about?" Heero asked in his mundane tone, not quite relating to the topic WuFei had let resurface.

"The door, 006. I don't believe what that boy said, about it not existing," WuFei looked from one pilot to the next.

"You may be right," Heero said, "but now isn't the time to go searching for a missing door. We have much more important things to worry about."

"Yeah, like how long it's gonna be until eighteen hundred," Duo grumbled.

"Why don't we go look at the mobile suits? I'm sure that there's a reason they allowed us to see them in the first place," Trowa said.

Heero glanced around at the others. "You go ahead. I need to take care of some things."

"I can't go either," Duo said suddenly, his hands clenched into fists. "The sight of them there…just makes me feel like it's war all over again."

No one moved.

"Maybe we should wait," Quatre suggested. In all reality, he wasn't too excited about going to see the suits either. He had said his goodbye's a long time ago, and was hoping that it would stay that way.

Heero replied, "Do what you want. If you need me, I'll be in room 001." He had failed to acknowledge that it was his room now. It almost seemed as though he didn't want it to be his room, anymore than he wanted to be on the base in the first place.

Quatre and WuFei also dispersed into their own rooms, leaving Duo and Trowa alone in the hallway.

"You gonna go to bed, too, Trowa?" Duo asked, leaning against the other wall.

Trowa shook his head. "No."

"Good, me neither," Duo smirked. "At least I'll have someone to keep me company."

Trowa turned and walked down the hall.

"Hey, Trowa, where're yah going?" Duo asked, but by the direction the tall boy had taken, Duo didn't need an answer. He was going to see the Gundams.

Duo shook his head and decided to check out the television lounge. Maybe there would be a sitcom on. When he arrived, however, he only found episodes from the pre-colony television show "The Addams Family."

xxx

Trowa entered the hanger, his eyes falling onto the newest model of Heavyarms. He stood near it, silent, thoughts running through his head. Old memories that seemed to have died during the day, but came back, stronger than reality at night, danced in his eyes.

_Those who lay eyes on a Gundam shall not live to tell about it. Those are my orders…_

And yet, the entire world had known of them in a matter of hours. It didn't surprise him, really, that someone had recreated them. Especially someone who had worked so closely with the other Doctors before.

Trowa stiffened, feeling a presence behind him. He didn't bother to move, knowing who it was in an instant.

"They're very powerful."

McCallister was wiping his hands off with a grease-splotched cloth. His arms were covered in the dark gunk, and he was wearing a mechanics uniform. His eyes were trained on the newest model of Heavyarms.

"Why did you rebuild them?"

The young man shook his head. "I do what Doc tells me."

"Are you a Gundam pilot?"

The boy paused in his motions, and finally, he nodded once. "Yeah, but I guess you already knew that, huh?"

"What about the girl?"

For a moment, Nathan just stopped moving. It was as though Trowa had stepped on some secret without knowing it. "You mean Million? She's the pilot of Razon, that mobile suit there." He pointed. "It's not a Gundam, as you can see."

"What is it?"

"Strong as a Leo, fast as an Ares," Nathan replied softly.

"Which one is yours?"

"Terraforce," Nathan said, nodding in the direction of a green and silver mobile suit. "She's land-based. Strong as hell…"

"What about that one?"

"It's not done yet."

Trowa turned from the last suit to the boy. "Eight suits, but only seven of us."

"Doc's here, too," he pointed out softly.

"Yes, but I highly doubt he is going to be flying a suit anytime soon," Trowa replied.

McCallister only shook his head. "Listen, Barton, I don't make the rules, okay? I only follow them."

"Of course," Trowa said. "That's all Gundam Pilots were ever made for."

The mechanic lowered his arms and said bitterly in as low of a tone as he could muster, "There are things going on around here that you should be aware of, 03. Things that we can't discuss in the open."

Before Trowa could ask what he meant, he was gone.

So, his hunch had been correct. The missing door number, the eighth mobile suit, the letter to Heero…there was something going on that it seemed Doc almost _wanted_ them to find out about.

But that couldn't be true, because McCallister and Liz had both been extremely secretive about the whereabouts of door 006 and who the eighth pilot _was_.

For a moment, Trowa only looked up at the Gundams in mindless thought, the ideas circling his head.

Then, everything clicked.

The missing door, the extra mobile suit…even the way McCallister had tensed up when Trowa had asked about "the girl." It was then he realized three things: The missing door was the number of the missing pilot, pilot 006 was a girl, and it seemed that no one wanted them to realize this.

Trowa felt that there was something he had missed. Something that he had overlooked…something small…

He closed his eyes and ran the day through his mind. It came slowly, blurred and unclear at first, but when it hit, it made an enormous impact.

"…_he might send the _experiment_ after you…_"

"…_let me in or I'll set the experiment on you!_"

"_Let's just say that it's an experiment gone wrong._"

"The experiment," Trowa murmured. Now he knew four things for certain, and the last made him cold. The last Gundam belonged to pilot 006, a girl who had been part of some horrific accident, an experiment gone wrong.

But, why then did Liz threaten, even jokingly, to set the experiment on others in current time?

Maybe it was a joke.

Trowa doubted it.

He frowned and walked towards the unfinished mobile suit. It looked finished to him. Walking forwards, he grabbed the grappling rope and tugged on it. As he had expected, it began to pull him upwards.

Once he had reached the cockpit, he let go of the rope and settled into it. The seat was very similar to the Heavyarms seats, the controls in very much the same positions and so on.

Rather suddenly, the suit came to life and the hatch closed, surrounding Trowa in darkness.

"What's this?"

The screens flickered, and after a second or two, text began to race across them. A red light blinked to life, and it scanned Trowa. His specs came up on one of the five screens, the letters blinking fast as the Gundam analyzed him.

Finally, the inside blinked to darkness again.

Thinking the Gundam had just been curious, Trowa prepared to leave, but then the screens flickered to life again, text racing by.

Another person's specs came up on the screen. This one was female, and then after her, another male. There was one more male spec, as if the Gundam were comparing Trowa to them, just to see if maybe one of them had changed their appearance.

When the Gundam was satisfied with its findings, the cockpit blinked to darkness again.

"Are you going to let me leave?" Trowa asked under his breath. Like the Gundams before it, this one was very much alive in its own sense. He thought maybe it would just open its hatch and let him go, but it didn't.

Another image appeared on the screens.

More specs, Trowa supposed. He was right, but these specs were of a girl. Above her were the numbers 006.

Trowa leaned forward in his seat, reading through the information quickly. She was merely called 006, as if she were a robot model. There was nothing more than basic height, weight, sight, and hearing specs. A line of numbers explained her skill levels. She was a good pilot, and pretty good with hand-to-hand combat. She worked well with weapons, but her emotional status was close to nothing. The emotional status, Trowa supposed, meant that she didn't give pity to her targets. Heero was very much the same.

Trowa frowned when he noticed her age.

She had been born roughly the same time as he and the others. She was a year younger than him, 20.

This shouldn't have bothered him so much, but it did. He supposed it was because the other two pilots on the base were both much younger than he or the other pilots.

For some reason, the thought that this girl should have been the sixth pilot made him feel awkward.

He and the others were all guys. To have had a girl as the sixth and final pilot of the time might have caused some disruptions amongst their group.

But then, this McCallister guy was also a Gundam pilot. So, what about him?

"Give me the specs on McCallister," Trowa said, and the screen blinked. A second or two later, the specs for the boy reappeared.

His name was Nathanial McCallister. He was twenty as well, a year older than Liz. He was the pilot, as he had said before, of the Gundam Terraforce. Trowa saw, with utter amazement, that his skills were just below the girls. Everything she might have had a nine or ten on, he had an eight or nine on. He was German, it looked, but unlike Liz, he had no accent when he spoke. He was a decent pilot, but was much better with close-range combat and weapons.

"Liz," Trowa commanded.

The specs on the girl came up. Lizerina Million. She was from the old England territories. No wonder she had such an odd accent. As he had been told, she was the pilot of the mobile suit Razon, and furthermore, her skill levels as a pilot were highest, but her physical skills, such as martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, were the lowest.

The three of them made quite a team, Trowa realized. Where the pilot 006 lacked in emotions such as pity, Liz made up for it with reason. Where Liz lacked in hand-to-hand, McCallister made up for it, and where McCallister failed at piloting, Liz and 006 made up for him.

The perfect team of killers.

"Gundam specs on 006's mobile suit," Trowa demanded, and the suit blinked a light a few times. The specs came up, revealing the suit to be called Hawkeye. There was a lot of information on it, and Trowa scrolled along, reading quickly. The primary weapons of the suit were an enormous spiked ball on a chain that could be whipped out at enemies, and a cannon on the other arm. The cannon shot enormous amounts of energy, much like Heero's beam-cannon, except this one was attached to the arm.

"Terraforce," he said, and the specs came up. Where Hawkeye was a flight model, Terraforce was a land-based Gundam. It had a giant bow and arrows of energy that it could shoot at its enemies. It also had a long whip that it could use to send an electric shock to its enemies. It had a number of minor guns and cannons on its shoulders and legs.

Finally, Trowa requested the specs for Razon. Just as he had suspected, it was strong as well as quick, reminding him of what Nathan had said. It mainly used a beam-cannon and a beam-saber.

Trowa leaned back in the seat, thinking.

The three suits were very much like their pilots. Each one picked up where the other left off. While Hawkeye could take the skies, Terraforce would take the land, and then Razon would backup whoever needed it.

The perfect team, once again.

Suddenly the cockpit opened, and Trowa was subject to the blinding light of the hanger.

He blinked a few times to find his sight, and found himself looking into a pair of blue eyes. It was Liz.

She was not happy.

"What do you think you're doing?"

He shrugged. "Just thought I'd see what the suit felt like."

She looked around warily and said, "Come on, then, get out…"

He stood and followed her back to the ground. The cockpit closed behind them as they walked across the tarmac. She led him into the hallway, and once she was sure they were alone, she rounded on him.

"Are you bloody _insane_?"

"What do you mean?" Trowa asked indignantly, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"If it had been McCallister or Doc that found you in that suit, you wouldn't even be here right now," she hissed back. "That suit is off-limits, even to us."

"I don't see what the problem is," he replied, deadpan.

"Did it show you anything?" she asked, almost desperately.

"I told you, I was only trying the seat."

"You didn't answer my question!"

Trowa looked up at her, his green eyes penetrating her so intensely she felt that he couldn't possibly be lying. "It didn't show me _anything_."

"Fine, then," she said. "Just…go do whatever…just stay away from that suit. And mine. I could care less about McCallister's, but stay away from the Razon. It doesn't like anyone other than me."

Trowa just shrugged and walked back down the hallway towards his room.

Liz rubbed her head and shook her head. "Bloody hell, that guy's going to be a problem…" she frowned and went the direction he had, entering her room. She approached a computer consol. "Computer, give me the specs on Trowa Barton."

The monitor flashed for a few seconds before Trowa's image came up. Everything that Doc knew about him from Doctor S's reports appeared.

"He's good," Liz murmured. "Hiding on Earth in a circus so no one would question his skills…very interesting…" She continued to read, scanning the file. Unlike their own files, the files on the ex-pilots were very in-depth. The only things that the file couldn't place for certain were Trowa's exact age (it only estimated that he was 21), where he was from (aside from the colony cluster he had come to Earth from), and his real name.

This part interested Liz the most.

**Name:** Trowa Barton (real name unknown)

**Age:** Estimated 21

His skills were very good. He could infiltrate an enemy's camp without drawing attention to himself, no matter how outstanding his features were. As Liz read on, she noticed that he, in fact, had done so on a number of occasions. At one point four years ago, he had infiltrated Oz, serving under Colonial Lady Une as a soldier, and then later during the rise of Mariemaia Kushranada-Barton, he had served in her ranks as well.

"Extraordinary," whispered Liz.

She had, of course, been briefed on each pilot, but none of the briefings had gone into such detail.

There was a knock at her door.

Liz moved and opened it, McCallister's blank face coming into view.

"Million," he acknowledged her blankly, tone matching his eyes.

"What do you want?" she asked, rubbing her forehead. "Because I'm very busy, and anything short of dealing with the experiment will have to wait."

"Doc said he saw you pull 003 out of Hawkeye's cockpit," Nathan replied. "He sent me to find out why."

"003," she said, not at all liking the numbers that came from her tongue, "_Barton_, was curious about how the suit felt. He told me he wanted to know if it was any different than his old Gundam."

"He was in the suit for almost fifteen minutes," hissed Nathan. "He knows something, Million, I'm sure of it."

"What does it matter?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe. "Eventually, they'll all know…Doc always told us that these pilots were smart."

"What I don't understand is why he didn't let _me_ take the place of the experiment."

"You know he and J were always competitive," Liz replied. "Besides, you might have ended up dead, and we can't have that." She quirked a smirk. "If you had died during the Oz takeover, you wouldn't be here with us to fight the E.P.A."

Nathan's eyes darkened. "How the Federation could have allowed _them_ to take control, I'll never know."

"Things were hectic. The people of space and the Earth needed help…you know as well as I do that if a wounded animal is cared for, it will stay by the side of the one who cared for it, loyal, even until death."

"Some hurt animals," hissed McCallister. "You would think the Peacecraft girl would have figured out by now how to best help the people."

"She's a bloody idiot," replied Liz bitterly. "Granted, she does have the best intentions in mind, but she's too rash…always following Yuy around, demanding his affection…"

Here, Nathan's eyes narrowed. "Has it ever occurred to you?"

"What?"

"Their names. Heero Yuy is his codename, remember? _Odin Lowe_. That was his real name, I think…"

Liz chuckled, her eyes wandering down the hall of closed doors. "I supposed…but what are you getting at?"

"Odin is Russian for one. Duo Maxwell…Duo, _two_," Nathan said. "I don't know Barton's real name, but I suppose it might be something that has to do with three."

"Quatre and WuFei…" whispered Liz softly. "Four and five…"

Nathan nodded. "Then you have Zechs, Noin, Une, Trieze…"

"They're all numbers," said Liz softly. "Every bloody one of them."

"The wars…don't you find it interesting? One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, one, thirteen…and then us."

"We were the odd ones out."

"That's why Doc didn't let us go and fight," muttered Nathan, curling his hands into fists. "Seven and eight…you and me…"

"So where does she fit into this?" asked Liz softly, her eyes growing sad.

"I don't know," he whispered. "Maybe we never were supposed to be here in the first place…I mean, they took care of it, didn't they?"

"They're a perfect team," replied Liz. "Where one fails, the others will succeed."

"Do you think that what he's doing is right? That by bringing them back into this, everything will work out the way it did before?"

"I don't know. They're a good team…if anyone can do it, they can."

"I suppose…"

"It's funny…"

"What?"

"This...us…before now, we were always fighting," Liz said, her eyes glittering softly. "We've never had a serious conversation before."

"Extreme times call for extreme circumstances, I suppose," he replied. "Either way, we need to figure out—"

"Hey, babe!" Duo shouted from the other end of the hall. "It's eighteen hundred, and there's nothing to eat!"

"He sounds like you," Nathan smirked. "Always wanting food."

"A man after my own heart," chuckled Liz.

Nathan just shook his head. "Whatever you say…"

"Look, Nathan, I'm sorry…I didn't mean—"

"It's fine."

"Hey, I'm getting hungry down here!"

"Hold on a bloody minute!" Liz shouted back, but when she turned to talk to Nathan, he was gone. She watched as his door closed and the lock clicked. "Oh, Nathan, I'm _sorry_…"

"Sheesh," Duo said under his breath, his hands resting on his hips. "One minute they're fighting, the next they're talking all serious-like. Wonder what could be going on with them…"

Liz approached him and said, "Get the other's, I'll start dinner."

"Should I get McCallister, too?"

She just shrugged and went up the stairs.

Duo knocked on Heero's door, and it opened a crack. "Hey, Heero, dinner's going to be ready soon…"

Heero just nodded and closed the door.

WuFei and Quatre both went with Duo to the kitchen, but Heero and Trowa stayed behind.

It was only after Duo had collected the others and when he was sure that McCallister wasn't leaving his room anytime soon that Trowa ventured into the hallway. He reached Heero's room and knocked softly.

The door opened and Heero's cobalt eyes appeared.

"I have something I need to tell you. Can I come in?" Trowa asked.

Heero nodded and moved aside, Trowa entering the dark room. Much like his, it was sparsely furnished: A bed, a dresser, a desk, and a wardrobe. A closed door led off into the bathroom.

Heero closed the door, locking it, before her turned to Trowa. "What's up?"

Trowa explained, "I think I know who pilot 006 is."

"Really?" Heero asked softly. He motioned to the desk chair, and Trowa sat, while Heero took a seat on the bed.

"Yes," Trowa elaborated, "I think that they're female, and that they were—or are—part of this _experiment_ that Liz and Doc brought up."

"I had guessed as much," replied Heero with a nod. "But how do you know they're a girl?"

"I was in the hanger earlier and McCallister was there. I asked him about 'the girl,' and he tensed up. I was asking about Liz," he added. "I think that if he wasn't hiding anything, then he wouldn't have become so tense."

"So you think that when you referred to this girl, he thought you were talking about another girl?"

"Yes."

"That makes sense."

"I also found specs on her," Trowa said. "In the sixth Gundam."

"How?"

"I wanted to see the inside, and, well, I guess it knew I wasn't anyone else, so it relayed information to me about her."

"Did it give you her name?"

"No. It only called her 006."

"Did you find anything out about our hosts?"

"Yes, and the Gundam didn't call them by their numbers. It called them by name."

"So you think that she doesn't have a name?"

"It's a possibility."

"That's interesting…"

"There's something else…"

"Yeah?"

"The three of them—006, McCallister, and Liz? They're a unit."

"What?"

"A unit. They're sort of like us. Where one fails, the others are stronger. 006 ranks high in everything except for pity when in a battle. No lenience at all. Where she lacks compassion, Liz makes up for it with her own sensibility in emotions. Liz excels at piloting, but is low in hand-to-hand combat and weaponry. McCallister picks that up, as does 006, and where McCallister is mediocre at piloting, Liz and 006 make up for it. They're the perfect team of three."

"What about their mobile suits?"

"As far as I can tell, it's very much the same. 006's Gundam is called Hawkeye and is an aerial type, McCallister's is called Terraforce, and is land-based, and Liz's is the Razon, which is equal in land and air situations. She's the backup. If one of the other's fails to make their target, she can easily come and help them."

"Specs?"

"Perfect for each pilot," replied Trowa, crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair. "Gundam 006 has a cannon on one arm, and an electric mace on the other. 007's main weapons are a bow and electric arrows, and an electric whip. Like my Heavyarms, it has a big backup supply of gun-power, in case it runs out of arrows."

"And Razon?"

"A beam-cannon and a beam-saber, along with some smaller guns. Like I said, they're all perfectly suited for their pilots…at least, as far as I can tell."

Heero nodded. "That almost sounds like our mobile suits. Each one made specific to our skills…"

"I think we should try and find pilot 006."

Here, Heero looked up at Trowa. He didn't seem shocked. In fact, he looked rather complacent. "I agree, but we can't try now."

"Right," Trowa said. He looked over at the door. "I heard Liz and McCallister talking before Duo interrupted them. Liz said something…I saw his reaction. He was hurt."

"Did you hear what she said?"

"No," he shook his head. "But doesn't it strike you as odd that someone as emotionless as McCallister could be hurt by something that Liz said?"

"It is odd, but not impossible."

"Either way…"

"We should probably go eat, or they're going to get curious."

"Agreed."

The two stood and left the room, following Liz's instructions on how to get to the kitchen area. When they arrived, the other four were already eating. Duo had cleaned out two bowls of gumbo, and was smacking his lips as he ate his third.

"This gumbo is amazing! Where'd you learn how to cook like this?"

"I agree, it is very good," Quatre said with a polite smile as he wiped his lips with his napkin.

"Mum was from the old American territories. She knew a secret or two," Liz winked and dipped her bread into her own bowl.

Duo looked up at the two as they walked in. "Herro, Trowa, come join us! Liz makes the best gumbo, I swear!"

Liz just laughed and dished them some.

The two took their seats at the high table and began to eat, the conversations around them bubbling and frothing.

xxx

McCallister stood in front of a mirror, his eyes closed. He was thinking.

Opening his eyes, he looked at himself. His relationship with Liz had always been a tense one. They respected each other, but not completely. She was his opposite: Spunky, fun, outgoing. He was calm and collected, or at least, he liked to think that he was.

But her comment had jarred him.

"_A man after my own heart!_"

No, he wasn't jealous of 002. Not one bit. Mostly it was the meaning behind the statement. Perhaps he had just taken it the wrong way. After all, it was nothing more than an innocent joke.

Still…

He felt his chest heave in pain, and he collapsed to his knees, his hands clutching at his heart. He felt weak in moments like this. The pain, coursing through his body, ripping him to shreds until he gave in and cried.

He hated to cry. He hated to feel, even, but when Liz was around, her emotions would just fly off in waves, making him want to be happy, or sad, or whatever it was she felt.

It was in this way that he and 006 were so alike. Except, she had actually stopped feeling a long time ago.

Here lay his jealousy. He was jealous of 006 for having been chosen for the experiment. To be the experiment. He envied her in ways that he had never thought possible, after Doc had chosen her over him.

Doc had seen his pain and replied, "_There in-lays your weakness, 007. You feel too much. Your heart is too powerful. To be a soldier, you must lose all of your emotions and merely fall on what you have to do._"

He had tried, since that day, to rid himself of his heart, of his emotions, so that he might be chosen over her. After all, he was a superior person. Liz had said it, hadn't she?

But then again, she had only come in later on, when it had become apparent that without 006, Nathan was slowly dieing. Doc had brought her in after her parents had died in one of the earlier wars.

They had been an enormous influence, along with the Peacecrafts of the Sanc Kingdom.

Nonetheless, when she had arrived, Liz was as cheerful as ever, her gloom shoved into the back of her mind where it emerged only in battle.

Even though she was a superior pilot, Nathan felt that she wasn't worth his energy. He had enjoyed his competition with 006. The two of them were so similar…so close in how they moved and thought. Overtime, Liz had merely become a balance for their piloting skills. A backup, and nothing more.

She had known this, almost since the first time the three of them had worked together. Even so, she never let it bother her. She liked 006, even if 006 didn't care about her.

Nathan closed his eyes, the pain becoming more intense. 006 didn't care about _anyone_. She had no feelings, no thoughts other than those of Hawkeye and Doc. Even so, Nathan liked to believe that she cared about _him_. He liked to think that even though she had become the experiment, she still had feelings from the times they'd had together as children, before all of this.

They had grown up together, always competing, always fighting to be the top student. But, it had been apparent all those years that no matter how hard he fought, Nathan would only be second best. Why? Because he was always the one with a heart. He was always the one who tried to catch her heart, to make her feel the same as him.

"_A man after my own heart!_"

Liz only knew a small bit about them, about what they had gone through together. She always assumed that Nathan was in love with 006. But, that was not the case, either. He didn't know _what_ the case was, but he was sure that he didn't _love _her. After all, how could he, when she didn't even care about him? He was expendable, like Liz. So long as 006 returned unharmed, nothing else mattered, not even the deaths of her teammates.

Liz didn't even know _that_ much yet. She just assumed that 006 would always have their backs.

Nathan knew better.

He stood, the pain finally leaving him. Sweat rolled down his face and into his eyes, leaving with the tears.

Doc had brought the Gundam pilots here to fight the E.P.A. with Liz and him. The only thing Nathan wasn't sure of was _why_. 006 could take care of everything herself, couldn't she? So why did Doc need the old pilots?

Nathan pondered this for a while, his mind reeling.

Finally, it struck him.

Doc wasn't going to use them to fight the E.P.A. No, that was foolish. He was going to test them, see if they were better than his own creations. Doc had always been the odd one out. He had always wanted to prove that his pilots were far superior to those of the others.

The missions wouldn't start until after Doc had decided he had won.

Judging by the fact that he had rebuilt the Gundams of the ex-pilots, Nathan was sure Doc wasn't going to _kill_ them. He would merely make sure that if they were placed into a crisis, the others could depend on one to finish everything that needed to be done.

Nathan lifted his eyes to the mirror. He walked forward and pressed his hand against it. It was warm, 006's room right on the other side. He was the only one, aside from Doc, who had any kind of access to her. Of course, Doc didn't know about his secret door. He had spent endless hours every night, cutting small holes, perfectly sizing up the door to the backside of the mirror in his room and the mirror in 006's room. He was surprised that she hadn't said anything to Doc. Or maybe she had, and Doc just didn't care. He didn't know.

He opened the mirror and stepped into the next room, closing the makeshift door behind him. It was, as always, pitch dark.

Suddenly, lights began to blink as 006 felt the change of temperature in the room.

"Hello, 006," McCallister said. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Lights flickered on, and in the center of the room, strapped to an up-right bed, was a girl. Her eyes were open, and a number of wires were clipped to her body.

McCallister leaned against the wall. "Doc brought the five pilots here…I think he wants to see if you're better than them."

He watched her, waiting to see how she reacted.

As he had expected, she didn't. His eyes fell onto a group of wires that entered the wall. They were attached, to place it simply, to the Gundam Hawkeye. Everything the Gundam saw, she saw. Everything the Gundam knew, she knew.

Suddenly the screen beside her bed flickered on, and Nathan saw what he had seen before on the security tapes. 003, standing before the Gundams, and then entering 006's suit.

"Did you tell him anything?"

She shook her head.

"At least, not anything that he already knew, right?" McCallister asked. He knew her better than most. Her reactions, quirks, etc. He knew she wasn't quite lying.

She just lifted and lowered one frail shoulder.

"He knows about you, then?"

The image on the screen changed, showing Trowa and Nathan talking. Trowa asked about 'the girl,' and Nathan tensed unnaturally.

"Of course. So now it's my fault, is it?"

She merely shrugged again.

"My emotions are still too strong, aren't they? Tell me, 006, how do I kill them? How did you do it?"

She only watched him silently.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter, does it?" he asked, a small smirk on his lips. "In any case, Doc brought them here to fight you. I'm sure of it. He wants to make sure, for once and for all, that you're superior to everyone else."

When she didn't react, Nathan approached her. He placed his hand on one of the straps that held her down.

"I hate you, you know that, right?" he asked softly. "I hate that you were always better than me, and that he chose you for the experiment. Even though you're a girl. Even though you can't _possibly_ have killed all of your emotions." His eyes strayed to the screen, the images flickering from one pilot to the next, specs showing up on each of them. Finally, it stopped on his picture. The specs blinked.

"So you think I'm superior to them, do you?"

She just looked at him, her brown eyes vacant, dead.

"God _damn_ it!" he screamed. "Why do you taunt me like this! Why won't you talk to me! Why won't you help me become like you! WHY!"

He kicked the stand the monitor was on, and it crashed to the floor.

Looking back at her, his own brown eyes filled with tears, he raged, "What is it about you! Why can't I be better than you! Why do you only sit there, mocking me! It's not like I haven't tried to be like you! I've done everything you have—I lived your life, I became you…I became _you_; I don't care about anything but this! But becoming _you_! So why can't I do it? Why won't you help me!"

He fell silent, hoping she might respond to him in some manner, but she didn't. He smirked darkly and said softly, "I see. If it had been ten years ago, you might have said, 'You an me, we're the same. Nothing can change that.' But we aren't the same, are we? And now you can't lie to me, like you did before…you've always known that we were different…" He gently touched her pale arm. "If you and I were the same, we would be here, together, sharing whatever it is that you're going through…whatever it is that I'm going through…we'd go through it, together. If we were the same, you and I would be unstoppable. We would be the perfect team, wouldn't we?"

He reveled at the warmth of her skin under his.

"We would be like twins. Sharing everything…" his eyes lifted to hers. "But we can't, can we? We can't be like twins, because we aren't the same. We just aren't."

Gently he lifted his hand from her arm. He wound one of the wires around his fingers, thinking.

"Liz thinks I'm in love with you," he said finally. It had been nearly three months since he had risked entering 006's room. He had almost been caught the previous time by Doc, and had kept low since then. "She just doesn't understand. She doesn't understand that I don't love you, that I'm jealous." He laughed softly. "Imagine, 006, me, jealous of you…when we were kids, you always tried to make it the other way around, didn't you? You always tried to be jealous of me…but I guess it was never meant to be, was it?"

Again, he forced his eyes to meet hers. She hadn't spoken to him in the last ten years, since the experimentation started. She had always kept to herself, never even really talking to Doc. She communicated through the images on her monitor or through her Gundam.

"It's been hard, without you around," he admitted. "So I guess that's my weakness. You. You're my weakness. I envy you, and until I stop envying you, I'll never become like you. But I can't stop, because my ultimate goal is to be like you. It's to be better than you, and until I am, I can't stop envying you for your superiority…" he paused. "Tell me…is it as good as I think it is, being the experiment?"

She didn't speak, but suddenly, her hand twitched, and she reached for his. She didn't look like she cared, but suddenly, there was an immense static charge that vaulted through her body. She jerked, and then collapsed.

Nathan's eyes went wide. He hadn't remembered this from any of his prior visits. Maybe Doc had just made it seem like she was emotionless. Maybe he had just made her that way, forcing her not to talk, not to think, not to do anything, through threat of electric shock.

"He…oh my God…he's…"

She turned her eyes to the monitor, and it flashed on. Nathan looked over. He was coming.

He quickly righted the stand, putting the monitor back on. Gently he placed his hand on her face. "I'll be back…that _monster_..."

And so he left through their secret door, the lights in the room going out after him.

Nathan kept his side of the mirror open a crack and knelt down, listening.

For the first time in years, he wasn't envious of 006. He hadn't spoken to her like that before, with such emotion and such trust. He wished now that he had. He might have known sooner what it was Doc was doing to her. He had always thought that if he didn't care to know, he might become like her.

He felt the pain burst in his chest again, and he seized over, catching himself before he made any noise. He panted softly and listened as the hidden door hissed open and the monster entered her room.

"Well, well, did you have a good sleep, 006?"

She didn't respond.

"I have some toys for you to play with," Doc said sinisterly. "You remember that you're only 006, and not 001, yes? Well, I brought them…your _competition_, my dear experiment. I brought them here so that you can prove, once and for all, that you are the best. No one can outmatch you."

He paused, and then continued, "We aren't going to have you fight them right away, of course. First, they have to prove themselves by finding you. Then, we can begin."

Nathan closed his eyes, suddenly very tired. The one-sided conversation Doc was having with 006 lasted for hours, and eventually, Nathan fell asleep.

xxx

Duo looked from Heero to Trowa and back again. "You're joking!"

"No," said WuFei, "I don't think they are."

"How awful," whispered Quatre. "Someone being experimented on, in this vary building…how _awful_…"

"And you're sure it's a woman?" WuFei asked softly. "You're absolutely _sure_?"

Trowa nodded once. "Like I said, Gundam 006 gave me specs on her. It was like it was waiting for someone it didn't know…someone it could trust…to show the specs to."

"Well, call me deft and show me the light," Duo said. "Who would've thought a girl would have been the sixth Gundam pilot?"

"I think there were supposed to be seven of us originally," Trowa said. "I think Liz became involved just recently."

"That would make sense," replied Quatre. "He did tell you that Razon wasn't a Gundam, didn't he?"

Trowa nodded.

"This is getting to be a little too weird for me," said Duo, shaking his head. "I mean, why would this Doc person bring us all the way up here just to show us he rebuilt our Gundams? I guess him hiding this girl would make a little more sense, but even so…if he doesn't want anyone to know about it, why bring us here?"

"Because he _wants_ you to know about it."

Five heads turned to see McCallister in the doorway.

"Heero, didn't you lock the door?" WuFei demanded.

Heero nodded and stood. "So you've been listening?"

McCallister shook his head. "No, I just woke up. I…heard you through the door. You guys might want to find a more secure place to talk, or at least talk a little quieter."

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that you're on the right track."

"What do you mean?" WuFei asked, standing as well.

"Come with me," Nathan said. "I'll show you a better place to talk."

"How do we know we can trust you? After all, you're one of them," Duo pointed out.

Nathan looked at the floor and replied softly, "You're just going to have to risk it. Please, we have to hurry, or else Doc will know we're up to something."

"What about Liz?" asked Quatre.

"She doesn't know the whole story, and could be a risk," replied McCallister. "If you're going to come with me, do so now. If not, then stay here and risk being caught."

Automatically, the other three pilots stood and followed him from the room. They weren't sure if they could trust the boy, but he did have a point. Even in their rooms, they could be at risk.

A few moments and odd turns later, they arrived in a small room. One side of the room had an enormous window that looked out into a zero-gravity environment.

"Where are we?" Quatre asked.

Nathan had pulled the plug on the camera in the corner of the room and replied, "We're in the surveillance lounge. That room out there is where we do most of our training." He smirked. "Can't have Gundams sighted so close to the end of a war, can we?"

WuFei noticed a camera in the next room over. "Can't it see us?"

Nathan shook his head. "No. But even so…" He pressed a button and the light on the camera blinked out. He motioned at a table and some chairs. "We have a lot to talk about, I think."

They each took a seat, Nathan sitting in between Heero and Trowa, WuFei, Quatre and Duo across from them.

"Now, you guys are right about presuming 006 is a girl," Nathan began. "You're also right about her being involved in the experiment."

"What are we wrong about?" Quatre asked directly, his diplomatic side showing through.

"You think Doc brought you here because of the Gundams. That's only partially true," Nathan said. "He does want you to fight alongside us, but first he wants to see if you're really worth the time and work he would put into retraining you guys. So, he decided that if you can find out about the whereabouts of 006, then you're worth retraining."

"So all we have to do is find the girl?" Duo asked, leaning forward. "That's not too hard."

"No, it's not," Nathan replied, and then, even softer, "because I know where she is."

"Of course you do," snorted WuFei. "You _live_ here."

Nathan shook his head. "Million has no idea where Doc keeps 006. For a while, neither did I—until I figured it out. But, that's only part of Doc's plan. Once you find her, he wants you guys to _fight_ her. He's very competitive, especially against the other Doctors. I think that's why we were never sent to Earth. He wanted his pilots to be superior to you."

"Wait, hold on a minute—he's gonna have us _fight_ her?" Duo asked. "Now I know you're kidding!"

"I agree," Trowa said, speaking up for the first time. "It seems rather pointless that your superior would have us fight his _experiment_, just to prove that she's better than us."

"In his eyes, it isn't pointless," replied Nathan darkly.

"It happened to you, didn't it?" Heero asked suddenly. "He's pitted the two of you against each other, all this time, hasn't he?"

"Not quite," replied Nathan. "I've known 006 since childhood, and we were both competitive, because we both wanted to be the subject of his experiment. When 006 lost all of her emotions, he chose her over me. Since then, he brought Million onboard, and the three of us have trained every once in a while."

"Why did he bring Liz here if he knew that you and 006 were such a great pair?" Duo asked.

Nathan looked at his lap, determined not to break down. He took in a shaky breath, and then replied softly, "Without 006 to compete against, I lost my will to live for a while. When I attempted to kill myself, he brought Million here from an orphanage. Her family had just been killed, you see. They were a great influence, like the Peacecrafts, and were murdered along with them in the Sanc Kingdom's fall.

"Doc thought that I was just lonely, so he brought her here, training her so that one day she could get her revenge on the Oz Organization for killing her family," Nathan finished.

"But it didn't work, did it?" asked Quatre tenderly.

"I started to suffer from heart problems," Nathan replied. "Doc realized then that it was because 006 and I were bonded in a way that even _he_ couldn't explain. He moved her closer to me, physically, and my heart problems became less frequent."

"So Liz just ended up here because it was convenient for him," said Duo bitterly.

Nathan nodded.

"Why are you helping us, then?" Heero asked. "It sounds to me like you used to idolize Doc."

"He's right—after all, you said you and 006 competed to be part of his experiment," WuFei said.

"You're right," replied Nathan, his eyes growing cloudy. "I did want to be part of his experiment…at least, until I realized what he was doing to her."

Quatre's eyes went wide. "What…?"

"He's forcing her to be emotionless. He wants the perfect soldier. Someone who can kill without a second thought. Without even having to say: Mission Complete, to make themselves feel better about it," Nathan glanced at Heero. "He wants someone who won't question orders, even if those orders are to kill their own men."

"Oh, how awful…" Quatre whispered.

"What do you want us to do?" Trowa asked, leaning forward, his visible green eye focused intently on McCallister.

"Leave as soon as you can," he replied. "If you let on that you know about 006 and everything that I've told you, he'll have you fight her for sure."

"We can't just _leave_," Duo said. "I mean, her life's at stake here, too, isn't it?"

"Yes, but I can take care of her. There's no point in you guys getting killed over this," Nathan replied. "Besides, if Doc has you fight her, you could end up dead. She doesn't have any lenience or any pity…not anymore."

"I'm not leaving," Heero said.

"It would be dishonorable, to just walk away from this," WuFei agreed.

Nathan shook his head. "Even if you do live, Doc'll train you again…he'll make you fight."

"Fight what?" Duo asked. "In case you haven't noticed, there isn't anything going on that needs to be fought off."

"The E.P.A.," replied Nathan. "You may not see it because most of you actually work for the government, but the E.P.A., or rather, the Ethereal Planetary Alliance, isn't someone you want ruling the colonies _or_ Earth. They idolize Oz, because they think Oz was actually onto something with their take-over scheme."

Duo frowned, remembering back to earlier that day when Liz had flown them by Hero Mountain. She had sounded sickened by how the E.P.A. apparently idolized Oz. "So that's what you guys are being trained for. To fight the E.P.A."

Nathan nodded. "And Doc wants to be sure that if you join us, that you're at your peak. He recognizes that it's been two years since you've been on the battleground, but thinks that you're up to it."

"So what do we do?" asked Duo. "Either way, we're screwed over."

"That's why you told us to leave, isn't it?" Trowa asked. "You don't want us to have to go through all of that again, do you?"

"No, I don't," replied Nathan. "You five paid your debt to society a long time ago. None of you should have to repeat what you've already gone through."

"I already told you I'm not leaving," Heero said bluntly. "If you need my help, I will do everything in my power to help you."

"The question is, just who is it that we're fighting? The E.P.A., or Doc?" asked WuFei.

"For now, I think it would be wise if we just went on pretending like we don't know what's happening," Trowa said. "We don't want to bring suspicion to ourselves."

"If you do stay, you'll need to eventually figure out where 006 is being kept," Nathan said. "But I suggest you worry about that only _after_ you've had some time to train and get stronger."

"She's being kept where the door 006 should be, isn't she?" WuFei asked.

Nathan nodded slowly. "Yes, but you can't get in without a strand of Doc's hair…or unless you have access to my room, which would be too obvious. I've already acted as if I don't approve of you, and I rarely go back on my approval."

"Not only that, but if Doc doesn't know you have an entrance into 006's room, it would look very suspicious," said Quatre.

"My suggestion to you is to train a little in your free time—you'll have a lot of it. After you think you've reached your peak, challenge me or Million to a fight, and then we'll go from there."

"Why Million and not just you?" Quatre asked.

"It will look less suspicious, and since she doesn't know what's going on, it'll make for a more realistic fight."

"That makes sense," Duo said.

"We'll have to adjourn for now," said Nathan warily. "Doc'll get suspicious if he notices us in here for too long."

The five pilots all nodded and stood to leave, but McCallister stopped them, "Thank you for staying."

They all just nodded. The new intake of information had become exhausting, and each was ready to sleep on the new ideas that roamed in their minds.

_Date: December 25, A.C. 199_

_Place: Old Lunar Base, Moon_

Trowa looked down at his hands. It had been just over a month since they had all arrived on the base. After their meeting with McCallister, they had each sworn to do what they could in the time they had.

Doc had been scarce since they had arrived; only occasionally looking in on them as they trained or studied. They were expected to keep up with their schoolwork, which wasn't so bad, now that all five of them were in the same place together. They managed to get help from each other on assignments and exams. Needless to say, all of their grades had sky-rocketed.

Yet, even now, Trowa felt empty inside. The entire situation was hopeless. There had been no news of 006 from McCallister since that day. In a way, he acted as if he had never even spoken to them.

He gave an occasional nod in the hallway, or some pointers on their new mobile suits (which Duo, Quatre and WuFei still refused to see), but mostly he stayed away from them. Oddly enough, he only went into his room to sleep, or to study, in which case the door was usually open.

It made sense to them, though, that he was taking such precautions to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Trowa felt bad for him. His only true friend was being experimented on, right in the next room, and he couldn't even help her. The pain had to be immense.

At times during their small and infrequent training sessions, McCallister would be pulled out suddenly by Doc.

Liz was always annoyed by this, as she was left short-handed and had to take care of the others without help. She often explained his being pulled out of their flight simulation lessons as, "Doc needs him for some-bloody-shit-or-another." As expected, the two of them remained at an impasse. They rarely spoke to each other outside of the training or briefings, and when they did, it was usually something similar to what Trowa had heard that morning:

"Bloody hell, McCallister! Didn't your mum ever teach you how to park a bloody auto!"

"If I want backtalk from you, Million, I'll ask for it!"

"Go park the bloody auto right, you prat!"

"Lieutenant, I suggest you stand down!"

"I don't take orders from someone who can't even _park a bloody auto_!"

"Park it yourself, then!"

"Fuck you!"

"You're the one who's all bent out of shape about it!"

"Oh, I'll show you _bent out of shape_!"

"Bring it on, little Miss Crumpet!"

It was usually at this point that they would either brawl, or someone would break the fight apart. Usually that someone ended up being Quatre, and usually Quatre ended up with a black eye or a bloody nose.

McCallister would stalk away, and Liz would huff off to her suit and lock herself inside until she absolutely had to leave.

Usually after McCallister had accidentally hit the ever-diplomatic Quatre, the blonde would find an apology letter on the floor on the other side of his door. When Liz was the one who attacked Quatre, she often felt so bad that she would repent by making him his favorite dinners for the next week and a half.

Needless to say, after a few bloodied noses and bruised eyes, he had stopped trying to interfere.

Trowa collapsed onto his back, every muscle in his body aching from his lesson with McCallister. The two of them often sparred, as they were of similar height and weight, and not only that, but their fighting styles were very similar. This had brought brief interest to Trowa, but he soon-after dismissed it.

The taller man smiled slightly. Over the past month, relationships had sprung up. Duo had all but attached himself to Liz, finding her British accent "hot" and her cooking even hotter. She had pretended not to notice, but would take his flattering remarks with an appreciative smile.

As before, Nathan merely stayed away from the others, spending most of his time working on the suits until they gleamed in the dim light of the hanger. There were days when he slept in his room and never came out, but the door was always open enough for one to see his sleeping form.

There was some kind of bond that had grown between Nathan and WuFei. Trowa wasn't sure, but he thought maybe the two found comfort in their similar positions. Both had had someone they truly cared for ripped from them mercilessly.

Quatre would tail Liz and Duo around, questioning anything that came to mind. He found how she cooked fascinating, and even taught her some great Arabic dishes, which she mastered quickly.

Heero and Trowa were the odd ones out. Trowa had found it interesting that Heero and Nathan weren't closer. They were very similar, but perhaps what McCallister had said before was true. Perhaps because he had disapproved of Heero the first day, and not WuFei, he felt it safer to be friendlier with the Chinese boy.

That was fine with Trowa, because it gave him and Heero some time to work together on their training. They were both similar, and since they had spent a number of days together during the wars, they got along just fine.

Slowly, Trowa got up from the bed. Muscles aching, he walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind himself.

He needed a hot shower.

xxx

A little while later, Trowa left his room to find something to eat. He was starving. As he walked down the hallway, a spell of dizziness overcame him. He leaned against the wall.

The dizzy spells weren't completely unusual. On the Old Lunar Base, they had less oxygen than they needed, and so sometimes they would have these spells. Trowa suspected that the low oxygen might have been what was causing McCallister's heart problems, but the other pilot refused the explanation.

Trowa felt himself stumble again, thinking how odd it was that he hadn't moved in the first place.

A second later, he was surrounded in complete darkness, and then, the room lit up. It was slow, so that the sudden light wouldn't cause his eyes to be shocked. Trowa relaxed as he felt cool air being ushered into his face.

Once he had regained his sight and his balance, Trowa looked around. He was in a room he had never seen before. In the center of the room was an upright bed, and on the bed was a girl. She had innumerable wires coming and going from her body.

Trowa immediately knew who this girl was. 006. He looked at her cautiously, his green eyes scanning her warily. He could see the mirror where McCallister had said he visited his friend from.

Seeing his eyes shift, 006 produced an image of McCallister on the monitor beside her bed.

Trowa nodded, slowly approaching her. "You must be 006."

She didn't reply.

"How did I get in here?"

The image on the screen flickered, showing a dizzy Trowa leaning against the wall where the door was hidden, and then the wall opening up and him falling through.

"No, I mean…never mind…" he looked around and asked, "Now that I've found you, am I going to have to fight you?"

The image changed again, showing that Doc was not on the Base.

"Where is he?"

She lifted and lowered one frail shoulder.

He nodded. "I take it you can control the electronics in this place?"

The image on the monitor again shifted, this time going to a picture of him, and then another, and another, and so on.

"I take it you find me interesting?"

Her eyes penetrated him, telling him without words that she did, indeed, find him interesting.

"What about the others?"

She shrugged again, though the action looked painful.

"How can I help you?"

She looked away. He couldn't.

"Can I get you down, or something?"

She lifted and lowered her shoulder again, her eyes closing.

Trowa approached her and very gently he undid one of the straps that held her down. If Doc wasn't on the Base, then he didn't have anything to worry about. He could take her to his room, where she could sleep on a real bed, instead of this nightmare.

006 was light, her weight mostly muscle and bone. Trowa was very gentle as he unhooked the wires and tubes that were connected to her. Once he had managed to free her, he lifted her into his arms.

She leaned her head against his shoulder, her eyes closed. She was breathing. Trowa let out a breath of relief. He had feared that by unhooking her, he might kill her. But, then again, McCallister had said that Liz and he had trained against her every so often, which meant that she was able to be hooked and unhooked at anytime needed.

Trowa carried her towards the door, pausing before he left. He wondered if the cameras were still online. Looking over at the screen, he watched in astonishment as one by one, the cameras along the hallway went blank, the connections severed by the girl in his arms.

He looked down at her, her brown eyes lifting to his green ones.

"I'm going to take you to my room, where you can sleep," he explained, though he felt a nudge in his mind that somehow, she already knew as much.

Her arms tightened around his neck as he left the room, as if she feared the world beyond her own room.

The entire trip down the hallway felt as if it lasted forever, both of them tight with the fear that they would be found out by either Million or McCallister. Even though the other boy had been helpful, Trowa still didn't trust him completely. He pitied him for his situation, torn between helping his friend and becoming what he had always wanted to be.

Finally, they reached the room 003, Trowa carefully taking the girl to the bed and laying her down. She relaxed only after he had closed the door and locked it. The room was dim, light only coming from the sun as it peaked over the craters and rocky moonscape beyond the Base.

Trowa stood by the door for a moment, making absolutely sure that they hadn't been followed. He turned his eyes to the girl on the bed. She sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

For a second, Trowa was socked. He had just carried her, that's how frail she was!

_No,_ he forced himself to realize, _She isn't frail, not at all. She only _looks_ frail._

Indeed, she was as strong as he, or at least, he estimated as much. It was then that Trowa completely took her in. Her brown hair was tied back behind her skull into a tight pony tail, and she was dressed, unlike Liz and McCallister, in a white tank-top and a pair of gray sweatpants. She was very thin; another factor that had led him to believe that she was too weak to stand on her own.

He approached her and carefully sat beside her on the bed. "Are you alright?"

She nodded once, very slowly. Without her monitor to communicate through, she was being forced to revert to motion, and eventually she knew, words.

"Good," Trowa replied. "The others are going to want to see you, you know that, right?"

She lifted and lowered a shoulder, standing from the bed and examining his room. She seemed to find his sparse furnishings very interesting.

"Are you going to talk to me?"

She looked over at him from her position near his desk and laptop. She reached over and gently touched the surface of the machine, the screen coming to life. Letters flashed across, forming words.

Trowa walked over and read the text silently:

I will speak with you. You may ask me questions.

Trowa nodded and motioned at the chair for her to sit in. She did, and he pulled another chair over, sitting so that he could look into her eyes. "What is the experiment?"

Me.

"You're the experiment? How?"

I am being experimented on.

"I understand that, but what is the experiment supposed to _do_?"

Make me perfect.

"Okay…" There were a thousand questions running through Trowa's mind, but as of the moment, he simply couldn't think of anything to ask her. The questions kept running together, making it impossible for him to bring any one question apart from the rest. Finally, he managed, "Would you mind if I brought the others to see you? And McCallister, too?"

She just shrugged. She didn't care, but Trowa could see the flicker of doubt in her eyes; the flicker of fear.

"You chose me specifically, didn't you? If you had wanted anyone else to find you, you would have let them. So, why me?"

You and I are the same.

"How?"

We feel nothing.

"You're wrong, I do feel. Besides, how could you trust me over McCallister?"

He feels too much. His heart is too big. He is too rash.

"So you don't trust him?"

I don't "trust."

"Then why didn't you choose Heero? He's probably closer to your specs than I am."

He feels.

"So do I."

No.

"I've cried, same as anyone else. I've hated, too, and I've loved. I'm the same as any of the others."

She seemed to absorb this data. Finally, she changed the screen to images of him, standing in the hallway on their first day, not speaking, just standing as the others spoke and argued. Other images flickered by; pictures of him during training sessions, during meal-times, and so on. For some reason, he was the quietest out of the group. Even Heero, he noticed, had been speaking more than him.

"So you chose me because you think I don't feel?"

We are the same.

"Suppose we are the same. Suppose I don't feel anything," he said, "How did you know that I would try and help you, even when McCallister wouldn't?"

He feels too much. He feels fear. You have no fear. You don't feel, you just _do_.

Trowa noticed the emphasis on the last word. It was odd how she seemed to show such little emotion through her communications, and yet, what little emotion she did show was such a huge impact. Finally he said, "I want to hear your voice. I don't trust everything I read."

I will not speak.

"Why not? Are you afraid of something?"

…

Trowa raised an eyebrow. He waited patiently for her reply. Finally it came:

Me.

"You're afraid of yourself?"

Yes.

"I thought you couldn't feel?" Trowa sat up, shocked. He hadn't been completely serious, but the fact that the so-called "emotionless" experiment was suddenly not so emotionless frightened him.

Not physically. My conscious emotions are dimmed, but I can still perceive the emotions.

"My God," Trowa whispered. "McCallister never told us what it was Doc did to you to make you stop feeling…will you tell me?"

He killed me.

Trowa's eyes narrowed. "You mean emotionally, right?"

No.

"How do you mean, then?"

Electrocution. The nerves died, and I died.

"He _electrocuted _you?"

Yes.

"Is he still doing it?"

When I react with emotions.

"What about now?"

I am not connected.

"So he can't hurt you?"

No. I can "feel" as much as I want.

"Will you?"

No.

Trowa slumped back into his chair, his body tense with shock. He was watching her quietly, as if hoping the entire thing had merely been a joke. The fact that Doc was forcing her so brutally to forget how to act and react to things emotionally was worse than anything he could have fathomed. He had figured that when McCallister had said she couldn't feel, she was just consumed by the mission, like Heero.

But now he saw the difference. Heero could feel. He could remember everything he had done during the wars, and would sometimes even wake up in the middle of the night, crying out in pain and fear.

But, to just not be able to feel…to not have regretted…felt pain…it was all something new to Trowa.

"Do you know that Doc wants you to fight us?"

Yes.

"Will you?"

If he orders it.

"Can't you break free? Can't you escape?"

No.

"But you aren't hurting now…so that means that someone else has to free you, doesn't it? Otherwise you'll end up getting electrocuted for even thinking of escape."

Yes.

"What if we kept you away from him? We could escape, right now. You could come live with us—McCallister and Liz, too."

He will find you.

Trowa opened his mouth to reply, but fell silent as she "said" another sentence.

He will kill you.

"So what do you want me to do? Just sit here and let it all happen? I don't think so," Trowa said bitterly. "I'm not going to let him hurt you guys anymore."

You will fail.

Trowa stood up, his hands clutching his head. "So what now? You let me find you—obviously there was _something_ you wanted me to do! If not free you, then _what_?" He turned and looked back at her.

She stood up and left the computer, its screen going blank once again. She didn't say anything, and merely stared into his eyes intently. She was waiting, as if he might be able to read her mind, which of course, he could not.

And then, she walked back over to the computer. She touched it again, and the text came back:

Help me feel again.

"Why _me_? Why not McCallister? You already told me that he feels more than I do," Trowa said, becoming more and more frustrated by the second. "What can I do that he can't?"

You can help me feel.

"I don't understand!" Trowa said. "Explain it better, at least!"

He is jealous of me, and will never help me to feel again. He fears that if he helps me, he might become something worse than what he already is. So, I must trust you to help me to feel again.

"How do I do that?" he asked, giving in at last, now that her words made at least some kind of coherent sense.

She shrugged again.

"So you want me to help you, but you don't know how?"

Yes.

"Great. I'm glad at least one us thinks that this makes any kind of rational sense," he replied, collapsing back into the chair. "Okay, so let's start small. I can get a joke from Duo, would that work?"

No. I can't remember how to laugh.

"Fine, then," he replied. "So that rules out any kind of tickling or pranks…what about when you fight? Do you feel anything then?"

No.

"I give up," he said, leaning back in his chair. "McCallister knows you better. I still don't understand why you don't ask him."

He envies me too much.

Trowa had almost missed the text, but not quite. He smirked and said, "How do you know that I don't envy you, then?"

She shrugged with one shoulder.

I just know.

"I guess I understand…" he looked to her curiously. "How long will Doc be gone?"

One week, as of last time.

Trowa looked surprised. "A _week_? I never noticed he was gone for so long before…" Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Doc was rarely around, and so him being gone for a week and none of them noticing made sense. "He never thought of you getting one of us to find you, did he?"

No.

"Sounds good to me…" Trowa stood up and said, "I guess we can start."

She looked at him, her head cocked to the side, and on the screen, in big, bold letters:

What are you planning to do?

Trowa offered a shrug and replied, "I'm not sure. But as long as you're in here and away from the wires and stuff, I don't see why I can't at least try and work with you. I mean it's only a matter of time before—"

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

"Stay here!" Trowa opened the door and ran out into the hall, the other pilots appearing as well, bewildered.

Heero had a gun in his hand, cocked and ready to fire.

Nathan burst out of his room, the door smacking against the wall. "WHERE IS SHE!"

Everyone exchanged lost looks. No one had any idea what the pilot was talking about. Well, no one but Trowa.

"_Who?_" Duo asked, yawning and rubbing his tired eyes.

"006!" Nathan shouted. "Who the fuck do you think, Maxwell! She's not in her room, so one of you must have taken her!"

"None of us even knew where her room _was_," replied Trowa calmly, leaning against the wall. His face was flawlessly masked—any thought of the girl that might have crossed his mind was not evident on his face.

Nathan turned onto him. "You knew she was near me! You knew I had access to her! You could have found out where she was!"

"Was there any sign of a struggle?" WuFei asked, slowly approaching McCallister.

"No," snapped Nathan. "_Nothing_…she's just…_gone…_"

Liz crossed her arms and said, "Well, you told me that if she tried to escape on her own, she would get shocked, right? So that means that _someone_ had to help her out, because otherwise she would have been too weak to escape."

"I want to search your rooms. _Now_," Nathan snapped. "Everyone open your doors and stand at attention. I will proceed by number."

"You can't do that without probable cause!" Quatre gasped.

"The pilot 006 has disappeared when there is no _probable_ way she could have escaped without help from the outside," Nathan hissed. "That's cause enough for me."

"Well, think about it," Duo said suddenly. "Is it really that bad that she got out? I mean, Doc's not here now, is he? Maybe her getting out is a sign that everything's falling into order around here."

"She can't escape!" shouted Nathan. "She's been experimented on, you moron! There's no telling _what_ she'll do if she gets off of the Base!" He turned to Heero. "You're first. Every one of you, stand at attention!" His eyes scanned the hall, but no one moved. "DO I HAVE TO HOLD YOUR FUCKING HANDS! DO IT NOW!"

The others stood by their doors, even Liz, waiting for Nathan to search their rooms. He went from room to room, looking through the closets, under the beds, in the bathrooms and so on.

When he reached room 003, Trowa felt his back tense. He wasn't sure what Nathan would do when he found 006 hiding in Trowa's room. But, the search came and went without anything eventful happening.

Nathan finished by searching his own room, and collapsed against the wall, his head in his hands, brown eyes wide. "She's goona get herself _killed_…"

Liz glanced around warily and said, "Okay, that's all there is to see! Break it up, blokes!" She ushered them back towards their rooms like children, and took McCallister back into his room to get some sleep.

Trowa went into room 003, closing the door behind him. He looked around. The room was completely empty. He would have spoken, if he thought 006 might answer him.

Just as he was preparing to search the room himself, one of the tiles in the wall opened, and 006 dropped from it soundlessly. She stood up, the tile falling back into place.

"So, that's where you were," Trowa mused, looking up at the tiles. "Clever."

She lifted and lowered a shoulder. Walking over to his bed, she sat on it, her eyes locked onto him.

He shook his head and said, "You knew he was going to look for you, didn't you? That's why you hid. You knew, somehow, that he was going to visit you today, since Doc was gone."

She just shrugged again.

Trowa walked over and sat down beside her on the bed. "What are you planning on doing? Now that he knows you've escaped, he's not going to stop until he finds you."

She reached across him to a pad of paper and pen that were sitting on his nightstand.

Trowa stiffened. The girl had no sense of personal space!

She sat back up and wrote her reply:

I will stay here until I am discovered.

"This isn't some game!" Trowa said bitterly. "You really should just let me take you back to where I found you, or at least get you off the Base! I mean, if he can find you _off_ of the Base, then wouldn't it make sense that he could find you easier here, on the base?"

She merely stood up and walked over to his computer. She sat down and began to type.

Trowa stood up and followed her, watching as she managed to get inside of the Bases system. She pressed enter when an option came up, and then the screen showed a shuttle lifting off from the hanger. The bay doors opened, and the shuttle shot out into space.

Next door, Trowa could hear Liz and Nathan. They both ran from the room to the hanger. The shuttle had done a wonderful flyby outside of their windows, and was heading off into space quickly.

She looked up at him, and her words flashed onto the screen.

Now they will think I am no longer on the Base.

"You think you have this all planned out, don't you?" Trowa asked, shaking his head. "I think you're—"

_Clunk Clunk._

"Hey, Trowa! It's me! Liz and McCallister said one of the shuttles took off on its own! They're going after it in the suits!"

Trowa turned from 006 to the door and back. His eyes narrowed. He figured the reason she hadn't sent the Gundam 006 into space was because it would be found too easily. He spoke softly to her, so that Duo wouldn't overhear, "So that's your game. Have them search out the shuttle…where'd you send it, anyways?"

An image appeared, and Trowa almost laughed. She was at least a little bit smarter than he had given her credit for. She had sent the shuttle into a shuttle-dock, where a lot of other people landed their own shuttles, and because this one was of a popular make, Liz and McCallister would have a hell of a time figuring out which one had been launched from the Base.

"Trowa? You alright in there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Can I come in?"

Trowa looked back to where 006 had been sitting, but she was gone. He looked up, watching as one of the tiles slid into place.

"Trowa?"

"Sure."

The door opened and Duo walked in. He took in a deep breath, wrinkled his nose, and said, "Shit, Trowa, your room smells worse than mine. Open a window, or _something_."

Trowa only shrugged and asked, closing his laptop, "What do you need?"

"Hey, man, can't a guy just want to chill around here?" Duo asked, plopping onto Trowa's bed.

Trowa put his hands on his hips and replied, "I guess…" he glanced up at the ceiling, uncertain. Suddenly Heero knocked on the door.

"Is everything alright?" he asked in his calm voice, completely unconcerned. "I heard Liz and McCallister run off."

"They saw a shuttle leaving the Base," Duo replied, swinging his feet back and forth. "I think they figured that 006 was in the shuttle or something."

"She's not," replied Heero, leaning against the wall, gently closing the door so that they wouldn't be overheard.

The Gundam Terraforce and the mobile suit Razon blasted past the windows a second later.

"How do you know?" Trowa asked.

Heero lifted his eyes to Trowa and replied, "If 006 is as smart as they claim, I highly doubt she'd do something that foolish. If I were her, I would be hiding somewhere on the Base, where no one would suspect me."

Trowa nodded. "That makes sense, I suppose."

"I want to meet this 006 girl," Duo said suddenly, thoughtfully. "I think it'd be pretty neat to see how she really acts, you know? I think she's just misunderstood, is all."

"McCallister and Liz don't seem to think so," replied Heero.

"Well, we know that McCallister has this…_bond_ with her, right?" Trowa asked. "What if he really _does_ care about her?"

Duo snorted. "The way I see it, that guy doesn't care about anyone but himself. He probably just talked to us cuz Doc conned him into it, or something."

Heero frowned.

"What is it?"

"His name isn't _Doc_," Heero replied softly.

"What do you mean?" Duo asked, now paying complete attention, along with Trowa.

"I couldn't find much, but for now, let's just call him Doctor Taylor. He was a Lieutenant-Major in the old Earth-Sphere Alliance," Heero said. "He knew the other Doctors, and helped them from the inside, but when they betrayed him by sending us to Earth, he vanished."

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Duo said. "The guy works with the other Doctor's to bring down Oz, and when we're sent to Earth for the same reason, he feels _betrayed_?"

"No," replied Heero. "Apparently, he had Gundam 006 on its way when we fell into Oz's trap, ending in the death of Noventa and the other pacifists. He recalled 006 when the accident occurred, and decided that the other doctors weren't worth his time."

"So you're saying that we would have had more help if we hadn't fallen for that trick Oz pulled?" Duo asked, eyes wide. "Not to be blunt but, that's bloody ridiculous."

"Not if you think about it from Doctor T's point of view," Trowa said. "He was ready to send his prized possession, 006, to Earth to help us fight against Oz, when suddenly he hears that we seemed to have teamed up _with_ Oz."

"Even he should have been able to figure out that we were tricked!" Duo said. "I mean, come on! WuFei knew it, the Noventa's knew it—hell, the _world_ might have known that we would try to kill top Oz officials!"

"That doesn't mean he believed it," replied Trowa.

"Even so," Heero cut in before Duo could argue any further, "he was only planning on sending _one_ Gundam to Earth. Doesn't that strike you as even a bit odd?"

"Hey, yeah," Duo replied. "That's right! There're three pilots here!"

"Even if we believe what McCallister told us about Liz being brought here later, it still doesn't make sense that Doc would only send 006 and not 007," Trowa said softly. At this point he didn't care that he was speaking so opening in front of 006. She needed to understand, at least from their point of view, what was going on.

"He might have felt that 007 was imperfect," said Duo. "I mean, you see how the guy acts…he acts like he isn't even human! I swear, if it wasn't for 006 being on the base, the guy would probably have blown it up by now."

"Now that 006 _isn't_ on the base—at least, in 007's eyes—he just might do that," said Trowa.

There was a moment of silence, and then Duo said softly, "What if we did?"

"What?"

"I mean," he began to play with his braid, an old habit he had come to rely on in times of nerves and fear, "what if we got the others out and blew the whole thing sky-high? Doc's not here, and neither are Bonnie and Clyde. We could end this before it even starts."

Heero glanced at Trowa. "What do you think?"

Trowa looked over at the corner of the room, thinking. "Even if we destroyed the base, there's no guarantee that they would leave us alone."

"If we blow up their fucking base, they will!" Duo argued, dropping his braid. "I mean, come on! What if they just find someone else to experiment on? What then? I don't think it'll end unless we end it ourselves, and we're never going to get a better chance!"

"Get Quatre and WuFei in here," Heero said. "If they agree, we'll do it."

Duo all but jumped off of the bed, and a moment later, the short blonde and shorter Chinese boy entered the room. The door was closed and they proceeded.

"What's going on?" Quatre asked.

"We want to blow this joint to hell," Dup replied nonchalantly.

"What?" Quatre asked, as if he hadn't quite heard the other ex-pilot. "Are you joking?"

"No," replied Heero. "We just thought we should get a vote from you guys before we decide."

WuFei nodded. "We aren't prisoners here, but I do see your point." He glanced at Trowa, as if he knew something. "This is about the experiment 006, isn't it?"

Trowa only nodded. "We concluded that if we just left, they would find someone else to experiment on. Needless to say, that doesn't sit well with us."

"Agreed," WuFei said. "If you think it will help, I agree to your plan."

"But…what if she's still here?" Quatre asked. "I mean, we can't just blow the whole thing up, can we?"

"No one else is here but us," Trowa replied softly. "We just plant explosives around the Base—especially the hanger—go into space, detonate them, and go home."

"What about the New Lunar Base?" Quatre asked.

"If we do enough to just destroy the Old Base, we should be fine," replied Duo. "Come on, Quat! This is for the betterment of human-kind!"

"Not to mention to end Doc's experiments…we can only guess how much damage he's already done to McCallister, let alone the girl," WuFei said softly.

"They'll come after us," replied Quatre, afraid.

"Not if we do this right," replied Heero. "As Duo said before, if they _do_ come after us, then they risk us destroying their next base—and their lives."

"Come on, Quatre," Duo said. "You're the only one who's against it!"

Quatre closed his eyes, thinking long and hard. Finally he only nodded.

"Alright," Heero said, looking from one pilot to the next. "Quatre, we need you to keep an eye on the monitors. If they come back, let us know. Everyone else, let's get some explosives and set them around the Base."

Duo grinned and shook his head. "This shouldn't be how we spend our reunion, you know…but hey, what better way to throw a party than to make it an explosive one?"

They headed out, and Trowa said, "I'll be with you in a minute. Just need to collect my stuff."

The other's all nodded, and went to do the same.

When Trowa turned around, he saw 006 standing behind him.

"I know you aren't happy about this, but it's the only way we can be sure that they leave you alone for good," Trowa said.

She merely lifted his bag to him.

Glancing over at his desk, he noted she had packed his laptop already, along with his clothes. "So you don't mind?"

She lifted and lowered a shoulder.

"Will you come with us?"

She lifted and lowered a shoulder again.

"Come with us. We can help you—all of us," Trowa said softly, accepting his bag. He caught her hand and held it calmly. "You can live with me, or the others, I don't care. I just don't want to see you get blown up."

She quietly grabbed the pad of paper and the pen, and wrote:

I will go someplace else. If I went with you, they would find you and kill you.

Trowa smiled slightly. "You're worried about us?"

She shrugged again.

He pulled out a contact card and handed it to her. "Contact me, even just to let me know that you're safe, okay? Just…as soon as this is all over, and you're safe."

She accepted the card, examining it briefly before putting it in a pocket. Slowly, as if she had never before preformed the motion, she nodded once.

The second Trowa looked away, she was gone.

xxx

The craft exploded outwards from the hanger, drifting a good distance from the Base before Heero pressed the red button on the detonator.

The Base exploded in a shower of flame, metal, and plastic. The explosion nearly rocked the moon, it seemed, but the New Lunar Base on the other side of the bland surface was untouched.

Trowa looked out the windows, his eyes catching another, smaller shuttle just escaping the explosion and disappearing into the stars. He smiled to himself.

"Well, that's done!" Duo said with a grin. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"

Quatre just smiled and shook his head. "Let's go home, then. I'd hate to be here when they see what we've done…"

"Agreed," WuFei declared, and Heero turned the helm of the shuttle, taking them all back out into space.


	2. Part Two: The Secret of 006

Part Two: The Secret of 006

_Date: December 26, A.C. 199_

_Place: Old Lunar Base, Moon_

"Well, I can't say for sure whether she escaped or not," McCallister said as he and Liz approached the moon. "They said the shuttle appeared empty when it docked, which means that she's still on the Base…either way, Doc's not going to be happy when he finds out…"

"Look, I know you're really upset about this, but…honestly, it's not so bad she escaped, is it? I mean, it's what you've been wanting, after all…" came the reply over the comm.

"I know it doesn't seem that way, but she really _is_ a risk, Million. She—holy shit."

The suits stopped moving.

Before them, where the Old Lunar Base had been not twenty-four hours ago, was a crater. It wasn't smoking, but it was black. There were debris scattered about, and amongst them, the remains of the Gundams.

"Wow," Liz whispered.

Nathan's eyes slowly became wider and wider, and his mouth began to tremble. What if 006 had still been on the Base? What if…what if she was _dead_? What if the pilots _killed_ her? "They…they…"

"They could've bloody-well _told_ us," said Liz. "I mean, come _on_. If they didn't want to stay, we weren't _forcing_ them!"

"006," Nathan said softly. "What if she was still on the Base?"

"Oh, hell, McCallister," Liz began slowly, "she wasn't, you and I both know it. She probably distracted us so that she could escape for real…I mean, we don't even know if it was them who blew it to hell or not."

"It was them," replied Nathan softly. "I know it was…it's just too random for her style. It was them…and they _killed_ her."

"McCallister, listen to me, they didn't—"

He swung his Gundam, turning it towards the colonies and screamed, pulling the triggers, "THEY KILLED HER!"

Electric arrows pierced the airless vacuum, gliding along, without anything to stop them as they disappeared into space.

_Date: January 1, A.C. 200_

_Place: G-Colony Cluster, Apartment of Trowa Barton_

He leaned back in his chair, tapping his slender fingers on the desk. He glanced over at his laptop, and then back at his homework. Finally he stood up and paced the room a bit.

006 hadn't contacted him. Not that he had expected her to, but _still_…it would have been nice to know that she had escaped unharmed.

Over the past few weeks since the explosion, Trowa had been questioning more and more the images he'd seen. Part of him wondered if he had just imagined the shuttle coming out from the explosion. Even worse was the thought that the shuttle had been empty, only flying outwards because it had been thrown aside by an explosive.

After all, Heero and the others wouldn't have known any better. They would have assumed that they only needed one shuttle, and might have set explosives in all of the others.

The thought terrified him.

Trowa returned to his homework, only to repeat his anxious pacing a few moments later. The rest of the night was spent in a similar lull, until there came a knock on the door.

Trowa checked the time. 2300. Who the hell would bother him at 2300?

He stood and walked over to the door, grabbing his spare hand-held from behind the jar of cider in his cabinet. He cocked the gun quietly and squinted through the eyehole on the front of the door.

Someone dressed in black with a black hat covering their eyes, and spurts of dark hair coming from under the hat was standing on the walkway.

Trowa relaxed and opened the door. "Duo? What's up? Why'd you come at—Duo?"

A maniacal grin appeared from under the hat, and the person lifted their head. It wasn't Duo.

"Eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, 'tis the gun I heard a shot, eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, kill the killer is what was taught."

"Liz?"

"Just call me…_Jack the Ripper_," she cackled and jumped at him.

_BAM, BAM!_

_Date: January 1, A.C. 200_

_Place: L-Colony Cluster, Apartment of Heero Yuy_

Heero lifted his head, the rapping on the door knocking him from his post-work lull. He stood up and walked to the door, still dressed in his rumpled work shit and pants. His black tie hung loosely around his neck.

He sighed and glanced at the clock just before opening the door. 2300. He frowned slightly, but figured it was another drunk. They liked to bother him at such hours.

The door slipped open, and the figure on the other side merely stood, silently, dressed in black, a black hat covering their eyes.

"Duo?" Heero asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

But the moment the word left his lips, he knew it couldn't be the ex-pilot 002. The figure lifted its face to Heero's, and Heero found himself staring into blank, cold, emotionless eyes.

"McCallister?" Heero asked, thinking maybe he was just having a nightmare. "What are you doing here?"

"You killed her," he whispered, hardly even looking at Heero. "You killed her. You killed her. You killed her."

It was blank, emotionless, lost, drowning in sorrow, the way he said those words.

"She wasn't on the Base," Heero replied, knowing all to well who it was McCallister was talking to. "She was gone. We saw her shuttle fly off the Base, and then you guys chased her."

"You killed her."

"I didn—"

"—killed her. You killed her. You killed her."

He wouldn't shut up. He was like some robot.

Heero shook his head and shut the door, locking it from the other side.

But, he could still hear the words, as if they were radiating from the door itself: _You killed her. You killed her. You killed her. You killed her. You killed her._

"I didn't," Heero said matter-of-factly. "She was gone. She was off the Base—hell, as far as I know, she never even _existed_."

_You killed her. You killed her. You killed her._

"No!" Heero said, a little louder, covering his ears. "I didn't kill _anyone_! Not anymore, not again!"

_You killed her. Killer. KILLER. KILLER!_

"I DIDN"T KILL ANYONE!"

_KILLER! KILLER!_

"I DIDN'T!" he screamed, falling to his knees. "_I DIDN'T!_"

The door burst open and McCallister walked in. He grabbed Heero by the throat and said, "Eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, 'tis the gun I heard a shot, eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, kill the killer is what was taught." He lifted Heero from the ground, to his keens. His eyes widened as McCallister tightened his grip.

"Mc…McCallister…"

"Just call me…_Jack the Ripper_."

_Date: January 2, A.C. 200_

_Place: G-Colony Cluster, Apartment of Trowa Barton_

Trowa sat up, sweat rolling down his body. He was shaking violently. He looked around, his cinnamon hair stuck to his sweaty face. He was in bed.

"LIZ!" he called, his voice cracking. "Anyone?"

His apartment, diligent as ever, was silent.

He tossed the covers of his bed back and raced into the bathroom. He whipped the faucet on and drenched his face in cold water, splashing it on with his hands. When he stopped, he leaned against she sink, his hair dripping water into the white porcelain.

Slowly, he looked up into the mirror. He had been reaching for the meds behind it, that would calm his nerves, but he stopped. On the mirror, written in blood, was:

I have seen your true self;

Murderer and killer;

Your time has come,

And you will pay your dues.

Jack the Ripper

Trowa stumbled backwards into the wall, his chest heaving again. He was very close to paranoia, and might have run to call the police, had his laptop not gone off in the next room.

He jumped at first, terrified that it might be Liz, or whoever had come after him the night before.

When he noted that the noise was only his computer, he walked to it slowly. He woke the screen, praying to every God in existence that it wasn't them.

His prayers were answered.

It was Heero.

"Heero," Trowa gasped, wiping the new layer of sweat from his face. "Christ. You scared me…"

"So they got to you, too, huh?" Heero asked softly.

Trowa could see he was wearing a turtleneck. "What do…what do you mean?" he asked, slowly sitting down. His entire body ached.

Heero lowered the collar of the turtleneck and replied, "McCallister came here last night. He…he wired my apartment or something, so that it would repeat the same lines…_You killed her…killer…_" he shuddered visibly at the memory.

"God…"

"Was it Liz?"

Trowa nodded, holding his own neck. She had choked him so hard, he figured he had probably passed out after firing the rounds on his gun. "I thought…" he cleared his throat. "I thought she was Duo."

"That's what I thought about McCallister," said Heero, his voice raw. He looked around warily and asked, "Did they…did they leave you a message?"

Trowa nodded.

"On the mirror?"

Another nod.

Heero didn't need to say what he was feeling. He was thoroughly freaked out. He had fought in wars, where the enemies were faceless, but here, he knew exactly who had come for him. They hadn't really been _friends_, but the extent to which they knew him—where he lived, his routine well enough to infiltrate his apartment unnoticed and so on, that was truly terrifying.

"Have you contacted the others?" Trowa rasped.

Heero nodded. "They were all fine, which makes me think that they were next on the list. I…I think they might even have gone so far as to try and kill one of us…"

Trowa nodded very slowly. Two of them a night, and then they would both gang up on the last person. The one they felt most responsible for 006's "death." Trowa wasn't sure which one they would have killed, but his gut said that it would have been either WuFei or Quatre. WuFei, because he had been "friends" with McCallister, and Quatre because he had just stood by and done nothing while the others planted the explosives.

Maybe they had been wrong in doing what they did, but now wasn't the time to stake regrets.

"We need to find somewhere to go—somewhere where they won't find us."

"Earth," Heero whispered. "Same place, same time, fourth day."

Trowa nodded, and the connection ended. The fourth day was Thursday, which happened to be the next day.

He pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a tee and coat. He grabbed his duffle bag, tossed some clothes in, but left his laptop where it was. Who knew? Maybe they were tracing them with their computers.

Besides, he couldn't wait at customs for three hours like he had previously. The next day was when they were meeting, and he had little time to get to the Antarctica Base. He grabbed his gun, which had fallen to the floor the previous night, and some spare rounds. Without looking behind, he left his apartment, shoving his keys into his pocket. Things had gone in the wrong direction, and to be honest, he was starting to get scared.

_Date: January 3, A.C. 200_

_Place: Dead Base, Antarctica, Earth_

After managing to get through customs—even with his gun—Trowa arrived at the Antarctica Base just on time. The others were already there, and needless to say, Quatre and Duo looked pretty freaked out.

"I _told_ you we shouldn't have done that!" Quatre said. "I _told_ you we should have just left well enough alone, and now look! They came and attacked you!"

"What I don't get is why they used the alias _Jack the Ripper_," said Duo, shaking his head. "I mean…maybe I can understand Liz using it...but that's a big maybe."

"Who was he?" WuFei asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"In the pre-colony days, as in the 1888-1891 Before Colonies," replied Duo somberly. "He went around killing prostitutes, cutting of their ears and leaving them in boxes for the police to find." He shuddered and looked over at Heero and Trowa. "Good thing you aren't prostitutes…"

"Well, we know that it wasn't _really_ Jack the Ripper," replied Trowa softly. "It was Liz and McCallister."

"Which, by the way, is just as freaky," Duo pointed out. "I mean, how the hell do they know where you live?"

Trowa shook his head. "I was wondering that myself…I mean, it wasn't as…awkward…when they just knew how to contact us, because almost anyone can, but knowing where we _live_?"

"That's not awkward," said WuFei softly. "That's just downright creepy."

Heero turned his eyes to Duo. "McCallister was dressed like you. Any idea why?"

"Liz was, too," said Trowa thoughtfully.

Duo shrugged. "Maybe they knew you guys trusted me, and that I would be the only one weird enough to come to, not only your apartments, but your _colonies_ at fucking eleven o'clock at _night_." He shook his head, his braid waggling behind him.

"Okay," said Quatre softly, "I'll buy the trust thing. I mean, they both have dark hair, and they needed a hat—who better than Duo to fill that outfit?"

"Not to mention, it _was_ nighttime," WuFei added.

"Good point," nodded Heero. "Next round of business: What did Liz say to you?" He turned his cobalt eyes onto Trowa.

Trowa closed his eyes, trying to remember anything he could. Finally, he said, "She said, 'Eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, 'tis the gun I heard a shot, eleven o'clock, eleven o'clock, kill the killer is what was taught.' And then she just said, 'Just call me…_Jack the Ripper_.'" He shrugged.

"Word-for-word," said Heero softly. "McCallister said the same thing."

"Call him _Nathan_," WuFei said suddenly.

All eyes turned to him.

"What are you talking about?" Duo asked.

"Think about it: If you call him by his last name, not only are you treating him as a superior, but you're also letting anyone who hears you know you're afraid of him. Just call him by his first name, and even if you are afraid of him, that fear will lessen in time."

"Makes sense to me," Quatre said.

"Yeah. I guess it does," replied Duo, with a nod.

"_Nathan_ said the same thing," said Heero.

"Do you think it means anything?" asked Quatre.

"No," replied Trowa. "He's just saying that he's planning on killing us."

"But he _didn't_," Duo said, his eyes growing wider. "Maybe…hey, hey, maybe he just wanted you guys to get scared. Maybe he wanted all of us to get together. Maybe he—"

"Stop," WuFei commanded. "I knew Nathan, at least a little. That's not like him. I don't know what he was up to, but maybe the destruction of the Base caused something in him to break. Especially if he thinks we killed 006."

Trowa shifted uneasily, but kept his silence. After all, he didn't even know if she was really alive or not.

"Speaking of which," Duo said suddenly, "Did they mention anything about Doc?"

"No."

"I mean, you'd think he would have come back and found the Base in ruins and then sent them out after us, but neither one of them said anything about him," Duo said.

They all considered this, but Quatre was the one who spoke up what they were all thinking, "Do you think he experimented on them? Do you think that's why they're acting all funny?"

"I don't know," admitted Heero, shaking his head. "But if they knew where we all lived, I think it might be safer for us to stay together."

"He's right," said Trowa. "Do you guys remember the safe house in the Congo?"

"The one no one could see except you?" Duo asked sarcastically.

Heero just nodded. "We can hide there."

"Wait, let's think about this," Trowa said. "The pilots we're facing…I read their specs. Nathan does really well in ground-based situations where he can use his mobile suit and not have to fly, whereas Liz won't use her weapons and is willing to fly."

"The Congo it is!" Duo said, clapping his hands together.

Trowa shook his head.

"Think about it, Trowa," Quatre said, "The safe house is deep enough in the Congo that they'd have to know its _exact_ coordinates to find it, and even then, they might not be able to find us in it. It has all of that room for our mobile suits—all we have to do is go underground, and we'd be safe."

"Not to mention the incredible heat," Duo said. "Liz might be a pilot, but she's still more of a crumpets-and-tea kinda person."

"_And_," WuFei said energetically, "they don't exactly get along, do they? Even if they patrol different areas, they aren't going to communicate well for very long."

"All we have to do is undermine them, and we're safe," Quatre smiled bitterly.

Trowa nodded. "Alright. We'd better get moving, then, incase they find us…"

They moved, almost as a unit, across the snowy fields and towards the newer base nearly a mile away.

_Date: January 6, A.C. 200_

_Place: Congo, Africa, Earth_

They all stood before the hidden face of the safe house. They were hot and sweaty, each one dressed in a tank top and shorts, boots, and with canteens strapped around their chests.

Trowa wiped his hair from his face, damning himself for not bringing a hair-tie like Duo, who had easily pulled his long braid into a thick bun on the back of his head.

"Duo," Quatre began with a grin, "You know, if you had two of their buns, you could look like Lady Une."

"Or better yet, Princess Laeya," said Trowa. The others laughed softly, keeping their breaths in a place this humid was nearly impossible, and don't even get me started on the bugs!

Duo just shook his head. "I don't know which is worse—scary bitch or scantily-clad slave woman."

The others weighed the choices as they entered the safe house, replacing the façade of trees before it mechanically, and descended into the basement hanger. They finally came to a conclusion.

"Lady Une," the majority decided.

"She wasn't _that_ bad," said Trowa.

"She was out of your league," said Duo drawly. He sighed as the temperature dropped nearly twenty degrees. "God, it feels good down here!" He collapsed into one of the chairs in the dining area off of one of the suspended bridges. The others followed suit, Heero only stopping to fill his canteen with water.

For a long while, no one spoke. They felt at least a little better, hidden away where no one could easily find them. But, all of them were terrified nonetheless. Nathan and Liz obviously had the resources to find them before, so what was stopping them from finding the pilots again.

Besides, the safe houses weren't exactly lost to their memories. Many a time had the pilots spent nights within the confinements of these havens, only to be shoved onto a bloody battlefield the next day.

"So, now we wait," said Heero softly. "Before you all go to bed, we need to make a few things clear: One, no one is to use the computers. At all. They could alert Nathan and Liz to our whereabouts. Two, no one goes outside during the daylight hours unless we _all_ go. Three, don't turn on anything unnecessarily. We want to keep energy usage as low as possible for the same reason we're not using the computers. We should have enough food in here to last us a few weeks. After that, we can go to the nearest market and get more supplies."

The others nodded. It made sense.

_Date: January 8, A.C. 200_

_Place: Congo, Africa, Earth_

They knew that for the next few weeks, they would try and gather their wits to come back with a strategy, as it was not their way to just hide forever. However, as Trowa sat, curled up in a chair in his small cubical, he couldn't help but feel the terror seep into him.

He didn't know why he was so scared, and doubted that Heero was this scared even. Maybe it had something to do with his past, maybe not. The fact that it had been Liz, and not McCallister—yes, he still called him McCallister in his mind; the terror ran deep, even now—that had attacked him should have made him feel better about his situation. But, it didn't. He was used to being attacked by men, but having a woman surprise him like that…it scared him.

He looked up into the mirror across from him. He hadn't slept in days, and had kept his entire room locked tight. He hadn't left, and he hadn't eaten. His eyes were beginning to get dark rings around them, and his hair was oily and scraggly, falling in every direction.

No one had bothered him. Perhaps they figured he was just sleeping, or maybe he was recovering. They didn't know. Heero, also, kept to himself, so they didn't really think it odd that Trowa was locked in his room constantly.

Yet, today, after nearly two days on the base without food, Trowa was beginning to wane.

_Clunk, clunk_.

There came a knock at the door, and Trowa jumped. He reached for his gun, aiming it with an unsteady hand at the steel doorway.

"Trowa? It's me, Quatre," came the blonde's soft voice. "Are you alright? Can I come in?"

For a moment, Trowa didn't reply, but then, the door swooshed open, and Quatre walked in, the door closing and latching tightly behind him.

Trowa lifted his thumb from the controls on the table beside him and curled up, looking at the window, the gun dangling from his fingers.

Quatre slowly approached him. "Trowa…I wish I could have been there to help you…" he looked over at the bed. It had remained unused since the taller boy had arrived with the others. It seemed Trowa had taken his seat in the chair and hadn't moved. Granted, he had changed his clothes, but that had to have been as soon as he had been alone, because they were crumpled and looked rather dirty. "Have you taken a shower?"

How foolish it made Quatre feel to ask the obvious, but Trowa wasn't giving him anything to go off of. He was trying his best just to get his friend to talk to him.

Slowly, Quatre placed his hand on Trowa's shoulder. Trowa didn't flinch, relieving Quatre a bit. Had his friend moved away, then that meant that he was afraid of mere touch, and that Liz had more than scared him.

"Do you want something to eat?"

He shook his head slowly, burying his head into the crook of his arms. He began to shake softly.

"Oh, Trowa!" Quatre gasped. "Please, don't cry! It's going to be alright, I promise!" Quatre knelt beside Trowa, pulling his friend into his arms. "Whatever she did…we'll get her back, don't worry…we'll get her back…"

Trowa shook his head, wiping his eyes. "It…" his voice was raw from dehydration. He swallowed a few times to get it back, and was finally able to speak again, "It's not tha…that."

"What is it?" Quatre asked softly. "Whatever it is, I'll help you, I promise…"

"006…" said Trowa, closing his eyes. On the verger of confession, he didn't know how to say the words, how to bring them to his dry lips. He licked his mouth, attempting to make it easier. Finally, he stuttered out, "I…I saw her, Q-Quatre. I saw her…before everything…"

"Did she escape?"

Trowa didn't nod at first, but then he did, slowly. "But…I helped her…Quatre, this whole thing—it's my fault…it's all my fault…"

"Oh, no! No, it's not!" Quatre replied. "I promise Trowa, no matter what happened, _none_ of this is your fault. _None of it_."

Trowa shook his head and stood up slowly, his joints popping and cracking. He let the gun slid to the tips of his fingers. "She…somehow got me into her room, and she wanted me to help her, so I did. She couldn't escape by herself…"

"_Electrocution_," Quatre whispered with a nod.

Trowa nodded back, though he was looking at the slats of sunlight that drifted through the window shades. "I helped her into my room, so that she could rest, but…I don't know…she told me a lot of stuff. About how she wasn't allowed to feel. I mean, she _can_, but…if she did while hooked up to that machine, she was electrocuted. She knew I would pity her and help her out."

Quatre remained silent, waiting for his friend to continue. Obviously Trowa had been blaming himself for everything since this had happened.

"When McCallister searched our rooms, she hid above the ceiling tiles," Trowa added. "After he left, she hacked into the system using my laptop, and launched a shuttle, putting it on autopilot, so that it would go towards the shuttle docs of Colony R123. After McCallister and Liz left, she hid when Duo and you guys all came in…and then, after we decided to blow the base up, she came out…" Trowa looked down at the floor. "I don't know…I gave her my card, so she could find me…I was worried about her…and when the base blew up, I thought I saw her shuttle leaving…but maybe it wasn't…Quatre, what if she never got away? What if she _did_ die and it's all my fault?"

"Trowa…" Quatre whispered, approaching the taller young man. He pulled his friend into a tight hug and said, "None of this is your fault, I promise. None of it…"

The gun dropped from Trowa's fingers, landing on the floor with a hard _clunk_. He relaxed into his friend's arms, his head resting on Quatre's short shoulder. He let the overwhelming guilt roll off of him, releasing him at last from his prison.

xxx

"Rise n' shine!" Duo called, opening the door into Heero's room. "Come on, up n' attem!" He stalked across the carpeted floor and to the windows, throwing them open. The braided ex-pilot then turned and looked around the room. Heero was hunched over by an old pre-colony dry erase board. He had been trying to figure out what Nathan and Liz would do next, and what their plan of attack should be.

Duo sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Awe, poor guy…" he shook his head and walked over to his gangly friend. Gently he managed to get the sleepy Heero onto his feet and help him over to the bed.

"You know, sleeping upright isn't good for you," Duo said as he put Heero down on the bed. "I guess it's bad for your heart, or something…maybe it was your spleen…liver? Whatever." He smiled and walked back over to the drapes, shutting them. "Sleep good, Heero." He shut the door behind him as he left the room.

"I thought you were going to wake Heero up?" WuFei asked from his meditation corner in the gathering room when Duo walked in.

"He was up all night trying to figure out what their next move is," Duo said, leaning against the doorframe. "It just doesn't feel right to wake him up after that."

WuFei nodded and closed his eyes, returning to his meditation.

"Wonder what could be taking Quatre and Trowa so long?" Duo asked.

WuFei shrugged.

"Think maybe they're alright in there?"

Again, a shrug.

"I hope so. I don't want them to get eaten by the boogie man or something."

WuFei opened an eye. "Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"You deal with your tension by talking. I deal with mine by meditating. Meditation doesn't work well with irrational noises like the ones you're making. Could you either be quiet, or leave?"

"Heh, yeah, no problem," Duo said with a soft smile. "Sorry about that…I guess we all need some time to unwind still." He left the room.

WuFei closed his eye again and relaxed into his own world.

xxx

Duo was walking down the hallway, headed towards the main hanger, when he spotted Quatre coming out of Trowa's room.

"Hey, Quatre, is everything alright?"

Quatre looked up and smiled slightly. "Yeah, thanks, Duo."

"Is he coming out?"

Quatre nodded. "Yeah, but he's going to take a shower, first. I think he was just a little shaken up by what happened."

"We all are," replied Duo, leaning against the wall. "Man, I wish we'd all been there, you know? Then we could've helped each other, and maybe this wouldn't've happened."

"I know what you mean," replied Quatre, taking the other side of the hallway. "But even if we had been there, do you think Nathan and Liz would have been any less violent? I mean, what if they're just planning on getting us all together in one area?"

"Better that we're all together than being alone half-way across the Earth from each other," replied Duo.

"True."

There was a moment of silence between them before Quatre spoke up again, "Is Heero okay?"

"That guy? He's gonna be just fine, I think," Duo smirked. "He was asleep at his desk when I went to get him…looked like he'd been up all night trying to figure out what they're gonna plan next."

"Sounds like Heero," Quatre said. "You can always rely on him to come to an answer."

"Yeah, I guess."

Another pause.

"I just wonder whatever happened to 006, really," Duo said finally. "I mean, she wasn't on the base, was she? To tell you the truth, I'm not really all that sure, anymore, if she was even on the shuttle in the first place."

"I know what you mean," Quatre said, nodding. He knew more than what Duo meant, but wasn't willing to break Trowa's confidence to tell him so.

"Still, I mean…we did the right thing, didn't we? Blowing that hell-hole sky-high was the least we could do," Duo continued, playing with the end of his braid. "If we had just…_left_…do you think they would have come after us again? I'm beginning to doubt it, to be honest."

"You don't think they would have kept coming after us?" Quatre asked.

"No, I don't," replied Duo. "I don't know what it is…they're both submissive, but I'm not sure Doc would have wanted them to continue harassing us, especially since most of us work for the government and could cause a lot of trouble from him."

"Maybe you're right," Quatre said. "But there's still no guarantee…I mean, look at us…we're all still attached to the pre-E.P.A. era as it is…we still think like soldiers, retreating when we're in a bad spot."

"Maybe we should've just gone to the government after what they did to Heero and Trowa," said Duo softly. "I mean, heaven knows Heero's job alone would pay for any kind of protection, instead of him just disappearing for days on end."

"I think they kind of expect it," replied Quatre. "They knew who he was when they hired him, and so there was always that chance that he might disappear. I know I put those same words on my resume…'_May disappear without warning and return at a later date due to ex-pilot conflicts_.'"

"No kidding?"

"Yeah."

"Wow," laughed Duo. "So you actually kind of expected something like this to happen."

"We're the Gundam pilots, Duo," Quatre said. "What'd you think was going to happen? We can't just say, 'Oh, the wars are over. Time to be normal.' We're never going to be _normal_."

Duo laughed, shaking his head. "For us, normal is this stuff happening…" he glanced away. "To be honest, I missed it."

Quatre just nodded.

"Hell, I had a great life after the wars…but _damn_, I _missed_ it. I missed the random missions, the break-neck way we did things…I even missed Deathscythe's cockpit. I missed the feel of him working with me on my missions…" Duo leaned back and continued, "I tell you what, no hover-car or any other vehicle is ever going to be as nice as the inside of a Gundam."

"Amen to that," Quatre smiled a small smile.

Duo sighed and said, "So…you remember back in the Middle East, when you told me about…that guy…?" He quirked an eyebrow.

Quatre rubbed the back of his neck and replied with a nervous laugh, "I thought you forgot all about that…"

Duo just winked. "I never forget anything."

"When's Heero's birthday?"

"Ah, that's beside the point," Duo said, "Now come on! Tell me!"

Quatre shrugged and replied, "Nothing happened. It was after I met you that I met with Trowa, anyways." He was trying to change the subject, but it ended up backfiring on him in the end.

"You two make a good team."

Quatre shook his head. "We're just friends."

"So you think…but watch out, he'll get you when you least expect it!"

The blonde just laughed. "Come on, we should probably go make dinner. Trowa'll be hungry, and chances are, WuFei's probably hungry, too."

"Yeah, you're right…"

The two of them walked down the hallway and into the kitchen to make the meal.

"Still…you ever seem 'em naked?"

"DUO!"

_Thunk!_

"OW!"

xxx

Trowa toweled his hair off. He looked up into the mirror, his heart skipping a beat when his eyes caught a flash of flesh. He turned around, but no one was there. The room was empty.

He turned back to the mirror, thinking that maybe it was just his mind that was playing tricks on him, but he was mistaken. There, was, indeed, another person in the mirror. It was 006.

Trowa whirled around again, the towel about his hips flustering with him. He looked back and forth for a moment before he let his eyes stay on her face.

"006? How…?"

Trowa approached the mirror and touched it, the image disappearing. His eyes went wide and he screamed softly, gripping at the glass with his fingers.

"Where…where'd you go?"

There was a knock on the bathroom door, and Trowa hurriedly opened it, thinking it might be 006. Instead, it was Heero. He had apparently awoken from his nap and was standing, his expression unreadable.

"Heero?" Trowa asked softly. "Did…is everything okay?"

Heero looked beyond Trowa and into the steamy bathroom. He shoved the taller boy back into the room, and then turned and locked the door behind them.

"Heero, what the hell—?"

"Shhh," Heero said, lifting his finger to his lips. He leaned against the door, listening. When he was sure they were alone, he turned back to the other young man. "I think Liz and McCallister know where we are."

"How can you be sure?" Trowa asked, adjusting his towel uncomfortably. "And couldn't it wait until I was dressed?"

Heero shrugged. He hadn't really noticed Trowa's state of undress. "I intercepted a transmission on the wireless radio…the pre-colony one. They're using a really low-tech frequency. My bet is that so we couldn't trace it."

"What did they say?" Trowa asked, pushing his damp hair from his eyes.

"'They're in the jungle, coordinates…' and then it damped out," hero replied.

"Even though you _might_ be right, I doubt it," Trowa said, shaking his head. "They could have been referring to anyone."

"I thought that, too," replied Heero. "Until I realized who was talking."

"Well?"

"It was Liz. English accent."

"Doesn't mean it's her."

"Trust me, it was. She has an unusual voice."

Trowa shrugged and said, "Well, okay, tell the others. I guess we can move out soon…just, please, let me get dressed first."

Heero nodded and left the bathroom to tell the others.

_Date: January 8, A.C. 200_

_Place: Congo, Africa, Earth_

"Are they doing anything yet?"

"Christ, McCallister, we don't even know if they're here for sure!"

"They are."

"How the bloody hell do you know that? We've been sitting here for hours, and I'm starting to get all sticky and shit."

"I just know."

"You think they intercepted our transmission?"

"We made sure it was on a radio frequency they could pick up without having to use a computer or anything high tech."

"So yes, then?"

No reply.

"Bloody hell, McCallister, you're more boring than my ant farm."

He didn't care.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. They were in the area surrounding the suspected safe house where the ex-pilots might have been hiding.

"Oy, Jack the Ripper! Jack-Jack-Jack the Ripper! Jack-Jack-Jack the Ripper! Jack—"

"Shut _up_," Nathan snapped.

She laughed. It made her so happy to annoy the crap out of him like that. "Look, buddy, you're beginning to bore me, and I need to be kept amused if this mission is going to succeed."

Images suddenly flashed up on her monitor, and she gasped, her face turning red. "How'd you get those!"

They were of her and Duo, cooking and eating together. He was always looking at her between glances.

"I can play vids, too, so either shut up, or I'll transmit them all over the world," Nathan said calmly.

Liz pouted, and then asked, "Why are we doing this, McCallister? I mean, I know they killed 006, but it was an _accident_…they just don't seem like the kind of people to murder someone…"

"Shut up."

"I'm just telling you the truth, and you bloody know it!"

"No, I mean shut up. They're coming," he said, and Liz looked through the screens and to the façade jungle. Indeed, five figures were emerging from the forest.

It was them, alright.

The two waited until the five ex-pilots were in clear sight before they moved in, their mobile suits exploding outwards from the trees.

"FREEZE!" shouted Liz, giddy at finally getting some action. "Bloody hell, I've wanted to say that for so long!"

"You're to come with us—either by choice, or by force," Nathan said, lifting a net from the back of his Gundam.

Heero and the others began to run towards the forest, not having expected them to be there, waiting for them.

"RUN!" shouted Quatre.

"He's not kidding!" Duo shouted back.

Trowa and Heero just stood, gawking at the giant mechas, as if they had never seen them before.

WuFei turned around and shouted, "Move it, guys!"

Nathan laughed and dropped the net onto the other three, Trowa and Heero still unmoving. The hatch of his Gundam opened and he appeared, a smug look on his face. "You are now the prisoners of the Earth-Colony Reform Alliance."

"The _what_?" Duo asked.

"Nice name, huh?" Liz asked, also emerging from her mobile suit. She grinned and said, "Doc came up wit it. Hell, we're the E.C.R.A. _Erca_." She laughed.

"Heero! Trowa! Help us, you morons!" Duo screamed.

"Oh, they won't help you," said Liz, jumping down from her suit and approaching the two boys. She put an arm around Heero's narrow shoulders and said, "He and your buddy Barton were implanted with tracers when Nate and I chatted with them."

McCallister also dropped to the ground. "They obey only us, when we're within a ten meter radius. Oh, don't worry, Maxwell. They can hear and feel everything that they do, but they can't do anything about it." He dawned a smirk and said, "Like this: Yuy, kick Maxwell in the ribs as _hard_ as you can."

Heero left Liz and approached Duo.

"Hey, now, buddy…come on, remember me? I'm your bud, Duo," Duo said feebly. His violet eyes were wide, and he watched as Heero drew back his leg and kicked Duo in the side as hard as he could.

Duo let out a gasp of air as his ribs cracked and crunched under the pressure Heero had put on him. He collapsed from his hands-and-knees position to his good side, breathing hard.

"You bastard!" shouted WuFei. "You have no honor!"

"You, of anyone, should know what I'm going through."

"I didn't seek revenge!" screamed WuFei. "I fought the _bad guys_. You're just being violent for the sake of being violent!"

"I'm exacting my revenge, just like any good soldier would," Nathan replied blandly.

"Then get your revenge on the man that started this whole thing!" Quatre said bitterly. "Doc's the one that started experimenting on her, so go after him!"

"Yeah," grunted Duo. "We did you a damn favor by blowing that hell-hole up…"

"We didn't know she was still on the base," added WuFei softly. "We were under the same impression as you were."

Quatre's eyes shifted to Trowa, but the other boy didn't look back. He merely stood, completely still and silent.

"Orders, Sir?" Liz asked softly.

"Barton, Yuy, load them in the truck," said McCallister. He turned to Liz and said, "We'll get them to Hero Mountain and go from there."

Liz saluted, though it looked half-hearted.

Nathan returned to his mobile suit, while Heero and Trowa moved the other three pilots to their feet, finally shackling them together by their wrists and ankles.

It was then that Duo began to understand why Liz and Nathan had gone after Trowa and Heero. He grunted in pain as Heero pushed him in the direction of a hidden truck. The two of them were, to an extent, the strongest of the five pilots, meaning that with their forced help, McCallister and Liz could get the other pilots into their clutches without really trying.

Duo grunted again, this time from frustration. He wished that they had never accepted the invitation to the Old Lunar Base.

_Date: January 10, A.C. 200_

_Place: Hero Mountain, Moon_

Duo landed in the dark cell, his cracked ribs causing pain to rip through his body. He cried out softly.

Quatre and WuFei were put into their own cells on either side of Duo's, and the doors were all shut with a terrible clanging sound that resounded in their ears hours after the doors had shut.

Duo coughed, blood coming from his lips, splattering on the dark stone. There weren't any lights in the cell, nothing but the empty darkness.

"Quat!" he coughed again, trying in vain to get the others to respond. "Wu! You there!"

"Yeah!" Quatre's voice came back through the cell walls, but it was very, very dimmed.

"That arrogant asshole!" WuFei shouted in response. "I can't believe he _did_ that!"

"I'm with you, Wu," replied Duo, leaning against the cool wall. Their cells were very narrow—perhaps four feet wide, so they were all able to hear each other without much trouble. "I wish I knew why he was doing this…"

"Poor Trowa…" said Quatre sadly. "And Heero…"

"Yeah…" Duo replied. "They've got it worse than we do…they may not be locked in these cells, but they have to watch everything they're forced to do, and they can't lift a finger to stop it…"

"Where are we?" WuFei asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

"They said Hero Mountain, right? The one Liz flew us past the other…um…week. I think it's where the E.P.A. has their newest base," added Duo.

"Well, obviously they aren't here, now," replied Quatre.

"Why?"

"Because they'd know we were here, and they'd do something," replied the blonde. "WuFei and I have really good contacts in the senates, and if the E.P.A. had any idea of our kidnappings, we'd have been rescued by now."

"Unless McCallister and that woman eliminated them using the Gundams," sneered WuFei.

Quatre had a sudden feeling of pain. WuFei really felt betrayed by McCallister's actions towards them. He felt that maybe their friendship had run deeper than any of them would ever know, and that McCallister's rash actions were causing the Chinese boy an immense amount of regret and emotional pain.

"Now, now, Wu, they're a bit moronic, but I don't think even they're that stupid," said Duo, and he laughed to himself, immediately regretting the action, because his side exploded into pain. He groaned.

"They said they were planning on fighting the E.P.A.," said Quatre slowly. "What if they really _did_ fight them, and they won?"

"Somehow, I highly doubt it," replied Duo. "It just doesn't strike me as their style."

"They have a style?" snorted WuFei.

"Yeah, it's called: Being complete morons and not listening to a word we say and attacking us when all we did was blow up the crazy-mans base."

"You think Doc might have the same chip in them that they put into Heero?" Quatre pondered suddenly.

The others were silent for a long moment. Finally Duo replied softly, "That could be."

"It might be why they're acting like such jerks," WuFei added.

"And that whole 'Jack the Ripper' thing, too," Duo added. "I mean, Heero told me that McCallister didn't exactly act normal when he attacked him. But anyways, what is normal anymore?"

Quatre smirked and said, "We're as normal as you get, right? Everyone else is just abnormal."

Duo nodded and leaned his head against the cold wall. He was so tired…he was sick of running, too, and now they were captured, held hostage by two people that might have once been their friends.

Duo figured that maybe Quatre was right. Maybe Doc had implanted chips in McCallister and Liz. Maybe that was why they were acting so fucked up.

Then again, who was he to say any of this?

He didn't know what McCallister was feeling, or if McCallister felt anything at all anymore. Other than rage. Oh yeah, he felt rage, but that was about it. He also didn't know, really, anything about McCallister's past, other than that he and 006 had been very, very close.

Mulling this over, Duo wondered why he had never heard of the Million's during the was, anyways. If they had been as influential as the Peacecrafts, and the Earth-Sphere Alliance had killed them also, then wouldn't it have made sense that they might have been just as well-known as the Peacecrafts? Maybe not…

Duo paused in his thoughts, straying to a new one. McCallister had said that Doc had brought Million to get revenge on _Oz,_ not on the Earth-Sphere Alliance, the one's who had actually been behind the assassination of the Peacecrafts.

So, had there been a hole in McCallister's historical accuracy, or had Doc lied to Liz? Or, had Doc been in lead with the Earth-Sphere Alliance, and had lied to Liz just so that she might one day fight against Oz?

None of that made any real sense, though. He thought that maybe, somehow, some tiny, little bit of that information might make sense. He knew it should, but still, it didn't, and it bothered him more so now than it had before. He began to twist his braid lazily around his fingers.

The other two had fallen silent also, probably too scared and nervous to sleep. Duo understood. He was exhausted, down to the very core of his being. That, and his side hurt like hell.

He'd have to kick McCallister once or twice to get back at the bastard for ordering Heero to do it.

Finally, just as he was drifting off into a light sleep, the door to his cell snapped open and a figure stood before him. It was Heero.

He was shoved into the cell by McCallister, who had been behind him. McCallister smirked, though Duo, who had caught the staggering Heero, was too blinded by the sudden light to see the others face.

"Come on, Maxwell. It's your turn."

Duo was shielding his eyes with one of his hands, Heero resting against him, shaking violently, sweat rolling down his neck and along his back. He had bruises and scratches all over his body.

He had been interrogated.

"D-Duo…" Heero gasped, grasping onto the other boys shirt. "I-I'm…sorry…"

Duo looked from the wounded boy up to McCallister. No doubt the apology had been for the painful beating, not for anything that he had given up. Heero just wasn't like that. He was one who would rather die than give any enemy information.

"Get your ass off the floor, Maxwell!" snapped McCallister.

"What're you gonna do if I don't?" snarled Duo. "Shoot me? 'Cuz somehow I don't think you want me dead."

McCallister stalked into the cell and grabbed Duo by his braid, literally dragging the pilot from the dark, confined area and into the lit hallway.

Duo kicked McCallister in the shin, but Nathan, though he stumbled and growled in pain, only pulled Duo's braid harder, winding it around his hand. He forced the other boy to his knees, looking him in the eyes.

"You will do as you're told, Maxwell," Nathan snarled. "And, should you decide to be gutsy like that again…"

_THUMP._

"Ugnnnn…" Duo landed hard on the floor, his skull throbbing in pain. McCallister had a great right hook.

"Now get up."

Slowly, Duo got to his feet, thinking that maybe McCallister was going to take him to get the chip implant.

Duo squirmed at the thought. He didn't have any desire to get one—besides, wouldn't Liz and McCallister have already forced them to get one by now, if they were going to at all?

Again, Duo was forced into a world of questions he didn't know the answer to, and answers he wasn't sure of what question had been asked to get them.

Just as Duo became aware that he was no longer shackled and could easily escape, he was shoved into a blinding white room.

In the center, was a chair.

"Sit," commanded the familiar voice of Doc.

"Why?"

Nathan shoved him towards the chair. Hard. "You don't question what Doc tells you to do. You just do it."

"Hey," Duo said, turning around. He curled his hand into a fist, and swung at McCallister, hitting him right across the face. "Thanks for that gift earlier. Now, don't thank me. I'm just glad I can return the _favor_." He emphasized the word by kicking Nathan as hard as he could in the stomach, the other boy stumbling backwards and into the doorframe.

He lifted his head, wiping blood from his mouth. His eyes were filled with anger. "You little…"

"McCallister, you may leave now."

Nathan lifted his eyes to the room where he knew Doc was observing them from. He nodded once, grinned evilly at Duo, and left, the door swishing shut behind him and locking.

"Mr. Maxwell, please, take a seat. This shouldn't take long."

"I think I'll stand."

"If you wish," Doc replied nonchalantly. "Now then, I must ask you—whose choice was it to destroy my laboratory?"

"All of us decided to," replied Duo bitterly. "After all, you were experimenting on people there. We had to stop you."

"You were free to leave," replied Doc softly.

"Obviously we weren't, or else you wouldn't have sent Bonnie and Clyde after us. Did you know they claimed to be some manic-sick-o from the 19th century? I mean, come on! How gross can you make them?"

"I did not "make" them do that," replied Doc in his disgustingly calm tone. "They wished for revenge, and so I granted them their wish. They only have kept you alive this long because I am curious."

"About what?"

"About how my experiment ended up in Mr. Barton's room just before my laboratory was destroyed."

Duo paused. He opened his mouth and closed it, not quite sure what to say. Trowa had never mentioned anything about that. Finally he asked, "You mean 006, right? Not Nathan, not Liz, but _006_?"

"Yes, Mr. Maxwell, I mean 006," replied Doc calmly. "Judging by yours and Mr. Yuy's reactions, I can only guess that neither of you knew she was in there…interesting…I thought Mr. Yuy was merely putting up a façade all this time…"

"So that's why you tortured him!" Duo roared.

"Oh, heavens no. Me? Torture anyone? How unpleasant to even think so. No, Mr. Yuy and McCallister had a…brief disagreement on the way to your cell."

"YOU LET YOUR OWN MAN DO THAT TO HEERO!" Duo screamed.

"I am not responsible for McCallister's actions."

"Bull _shit_."

"We have been through this before. I am, in no way, responsible for the actions of Million and McCallister. They merely do what they feel they need to do to accomplish their mission."

"Okay, fine," snapped Duo. "Whatever. If 006 was in Trowa's room, then you know what happened to her, right?"

"Oh, yes, I do."

"So why the hell do you need _us_?"

"Because one of you might know where she _is_."

"So, she's not dead?"

"No."

"_THEN LET US GO._"

Doc remained silent, and the door behind Duo swished open. This time, it was Liz standing in the doorway. She was covered in sweat, and looked winded. She said hoarsely, "Follow me."

For a moment, Duo couldn't believe his luck. They were really going to let them go? Just like that?

Well, it made sense, right? Because none of them knew the location of 006. None of them had ever even seen her before—well, other than Trowa.

Duo felt his heart stop when he reached the door.

Trowa.

"Where's Trowa?" he asked, turning to look at the glass above him.

Doc replied, "He is being questioned."

"Are you going to do this to Quatre and WuFei, too?"

"No, I know what I needed to know."

"And that was?"

"How many of you knew 006 was still on the base after Million and McCallister left to find her."

Duo nodded slowly, and followed Liz down the hall. He knew he could easily escape, but then Heero and the others would be left behind, not to mention what might happen to Trowa. The guy probably felt like the entire thing was his fault.

Duo felt that maybe he could blame the boy, but really, would he have done anything different? After all, McCallister, the only friend she had ever known, wasn't exactly helping her all those years. He had just stood by and watched as she was tortured, not lifting a finger.

Duo felt that out of anyone here, this entire mess was his and Doc's faults. Doc for conducting the experiments, and Nathan for just standing by and watching.

"So," Duo asked suddenly, "why Jack the Ripper?"

Liz paused and replied calmly, "McCallister thought it was funny."

Well, at least they were still on speaking terms.

"You think it's funny?"

"No."

"Why do you go along with him, Liz?" Duo asked.

"Because one day, I know I'll need him by my side," she replied softly. "To get revenge on those who killed my parents."

"Doesn't this make everything you do an oxymoron, then? I mean, your family was nothing but pacifists, right? So why fight, when all they wanted was peace?"

"Because they died doing what was right, so I'm going to avenge them by doing what I believe is right."

"Oz didn't kill your parents; you do realize that, don't you?"

She was quiet until they reached his cell. She opened the door and said very softly, "I know."

She shoved Duo into the cell, closing the door quickly. He could hear her footsteps as she shuffled away.

When Duo looked around, he noted that he was not in the same cell as before. This one was much larger, and this time, everyone except Trowa was present.

"Did they interrogate you, too?" Duo asked, though he already knew the answer.

Quatre shook his head. "No. Are you alright?"

"Fine," replied Duo, rubbing the side of his head, wincing as he felt the tender lump, reminding him where Nathan had struck. "Just picking pieces of my pride off of the floor."

Quatre nodded.

WuFei motioned to one of the small, narrow bunks. "Heero wasn't so lucky. He's asleep now, though."

"Doc told me that he got into come kind of argument with McCallister," replied Duo.

"Must have been some argument," said Quatre softly, shaking his head. He looked sad. Worried, even. "Did you see Trowa?"

"No," Duo said, shaking his head. He took a seat on the floor and continued, "Doc said that he saw 006 before we blew the base to hell. He also said he knows that 006 is actually alive, but he doesn't know where she is. I think he wanted to know if any of us knew that Trowa and 006 met…and because I didn't, and neither did Heero, he decided to let you two go."

"So Trowa's probably being questioned," said Quatre sadly, his aqua eyes looking to the ground.

Duo nodded. "That's the impression I got."

"Great," whispered Quatre. "Just wonderful."

"This whole thing is a mess," WuFei said. He also took a seat, looking at the wall. "What I don't understand is how 006 could have been with Trowa—we were all in his room right before the explosion, and right after McCallister started throwing his fit."

Quatre remained silent.

"Well, maybe something happened," Duo replied. "Maybe Trowa managed to free her, or something, and she was in his room, but left in that shuttle, before we went in, and after McCallister and Liz went into his room."

"That could be," replied WuFei. "Still, I'd like to know…"

"We can ask Trowa when they let him come back."

"_If _ they let him come back," muttered WuFei.

Quatre squeezed his eyes shut, praying that WuFei had no idea what he was saying. "Don't say that…please, just…just _don't_…"

WuFei looked to Quatre, his eyes saddening. "I'm sorry…but…we have to be prepared…you never know…"

"Yeah, well, _I_ know that if they hurt Trowa, they'll be sorry," said Duo, clenching his fists. Needless to say, the entire thing was beginning to screw them up more and more with each moment that passed by.

Hours passed, and still Trowa was not back. Quatre had fallen asleep, WuFei's arms wrapped around the younger boy. He had felt at fault for the blonde's intense worry, and so took it upon himself to try and comfort the boy.

Even when Duo moved, WuFei wouldn't lift his eyes. He merely stared at the door, waiting.

Duo closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, his neck stiff and aching. _Where're you, buddy? I swear, if they hurt you, I'm gonna make their lives hell._

They waited the entire night, but Trowa never showed up.

_Date: January 11, A.C. 200_

_Place: Hero Mountain, Moon_

"You just enjoy your little cell," sneered McCallister, shoving Trowa into the single-cell.

The tall boy landed hard on the floor, hardly able to move. When the door didn't close, he turned around. McCallister was still watching him, an intense look burning in his brown eyes.

"She's alive," said Trowa hoarsely, trying to find someway to get his dry throat to work around the words. "So why keep us here?"

"How dare you question Doc," Nathan snarled, raising his hand and entering the cell, the door closing behind him. Once the door was shut, he lowered his hand and knelt beside Trowa. "Listen to me," he said softly, "Doc knows you gave 006 means of contacting you. He was waiting for her to find you, but when I got antsy, he decided to let me take Liz and go after you guys." Nathan's brown eyes shifted to the door, listening and watching for any abnormalities. "He's keeping you separate from the other pilots…I don't know why, but I think he thinks your special, since 006 let you into her room."

Trowa, needless to say, was astonished into silence. Here was the young man who had, not even twenty minutes ago, been questioning him ruthlessly.

"I know a lot of this doesn't make sense," said Nathan quickly, "and I'm sorry for what happened…but…" his eyes darted again, a look of sheer terror in them, "You have to understand…Doc has Liz and I on a tight leash. He doesn't like it when we aren't in his view."

"He put a chip in you, too?"

Nathan nodded, wincing slightly as the chip sent a zap of electricity through his nerves. "He means well, I think, to better humanity…but his vision was fogged up a long time ago. He's really lost sight of what he was originally attempting to do." Nathan suddenly looked down at his hands, his eyes closed. "I…I don't know what came over me, but when I saw the old base…and it was just…gone…I flipped out. I thought for sure that you guys had tried to kill 006. I mean, I guess you all would have thought she was off of the base—well, except for you," he laughed bitterly.

Trowa tensed uneasily. He had never heard Nathan laugh before. It was forced, and almost inhuman. "She's going to be fine," he said, trying to find a way to ease Nathan's pain.

He nodded. "I know. It's just hard, not knowing where she's at…"

"Have you suffered from any heart problems?"

Nathan nodded once, his lips curling into a smirk. "Yeah. I figure it's sort of like dying, though. Eventually it'll all come to an end." He looked up at Trowa and asked, "Tell me, do you worry about her like I do? Do you care about her like I do?"

"I don't think anyone can care for her like you do," replied Trowa carefully.

"There are different kinds of caring, though," said Nathan slowly. "The way I care for her, I'm envious of her, and yet, I can't bring myself to hate her completely, or to admire her completely…It's all mixed up inside."

Trowa nodded once.

"How do you care for her?"

Trowa was shocked by this question. Really, before he had met Catherine and the pilots, he hadn't cared for anyone other than Middii Une, and that had been years ago. For a moment, he found himself thinking that he and Nathan had been in similar positions, only Nathan hadn't been forced to try and shoot 006. Or maybe he had. Trowa wasn't sure.

Finally he shrugged. "I don't know her very well. I guess more than anything, I was just worried that I hadn't seen her leave the base, and that she had been killed."

"But there's a bond there, isn't there?"

Trowa nodded, wondering why. Finally, he asked, "Does she have a name?"

Nathan shifted uncomfortably. "I…I don't know. Doc always called us by our numbers, so that we couldn't differentiate between each other until later."

"Were you ever sent on missions?"

"Of course."

"Without each other?"

Nathan shook his head vigorously. "No."

A long pause of silence.

Suddenly, Nathan continued, "At least, I don't think so…I remember having a dream where we were apart for months upon months. I remember thinking how painful it was, being alone and so far away from her." Nathan looked over at the door. "It was just a dream, though."

"How long ago?"

"We were nine."

Trowa nodded.

Nathan slowly stood up. "I have to go…the others need to know that you're okay…or, at least, what can pass as okay."

Trowa nodded again, and watched and Nathan paused before he opened the door. He drew back his fist and hit the wall, hard enough that when he drew his hand back, it looked as though he had been in a rough fight.

He opened the door and left, letting it lock behind him.

Nathan walked down the hallway, making sure that Doc could see his bloodied hand as he walked, though he was careful not to show it off too much. He wanted the elderly insane man to think that he had been beating Trowa up the entire time he was in the cell.

It helped that the cells were soundproof.

As he walked down the hallway, questions ran through his mind repeatedly. He couldn't quite remember if that mission had been a dream or not. He only remembered intense pain coming with it.

When he had been younger, even just the thought of the mental separation had been enough to throw him into a state of blinding pain.

He had been knocked unconscious by it on a number of occasions, directly following 006's involvement with the experiment, and had been in the hospital wing for nearly three months at one point.

He reached the cell where the other four pilots were being kept and opened the door. Everyone in the cell, save Heero, awoke from their light naps and jumped to their feet.

"Where's Trowa, you bastard!" screamed Quatre.

Nathan put his hands on his hips and replied bitterly, "He's fine." _Now just give me an excuse to come in there and talk to you…_

"He'd better be," snarled Duo from Nathan's right. His hands were curling into fists. "Cuz if he's not, I'm gonna make your life hell."

"I told you, he's fine."

"Then where is he!" Quatre raged.

"He's being kept in a separate cell." So far, no reason for Nathan to have to enter their cell. He couldn't just go around, pretending to pick fights. Doc wouldn't be pleased if he even _pretended _to beat the others up.

"Heero's out cold," sneered WuFei, "and now Barton's missing. You expect us to believe you, you dishonorable jackass?"

That would do.

Nathan strode into the room, hands curled into fists. He let the door slam shut behind him and hissed once it had shut, "I didn't do anything to Yuy."

"Then why is he all beat up!" Quatre screamed.

"Be quiet!" snapped Nathan. "I have to talk to you guys!"

"GET OUT!" Duo screamed, shoving Nathan into the door. "We don't have anything to say to you!"

Nathan stumbled forwards, shielding himself from another onslaught of Duo's strikes. "Hold on a minute! Wait—I!"

"SHUT UP!" WuFei screamed, joining the other pilot. "We don't want to hear your excuses! Just get out of here!"

Nathan eventually had no choice but to curl into a ball at the base of the door. He couldn't reach the controls, which had been smashed by one of Duo's better-aimed high-kicks.

He squeezed his eyes shut, thinking to himself that they would tire soon, and that he might be able to tell them what he had to say.

"Jack the Fucking Ripper!" snarled Duo. "I mean, what…the…_HELL_?" He was breathing hard, but was hardly close to becoming tired.

Nathan began to regret training them so well. They were at the peak of their lives, as was he, but at this point, he had no desire to take on the two of them at once.

He was good, but he didn't know if he was that good.

"Wait, guys," Quatre said suddenly. He approached them, and the kicks and punches stopped, leaving Nathan a bruised mess of flesh and cloth. The blonde looked down at Nathan, his aqua eyes almost glowing in the dim room. He knelt down and grabbed Nathan forcefully by the neck of his attire, hoisting him from the ground.

McCallister marveled at the strength of the young Arab.

Quatre pressed him into the wall and said coldly, "You will answer our questions, or I'll let them go back to beating the crap out of you."

Nathan nodded, feeling the side of his head ache dully from the number of strikes it had taken.

"One, why did you chose the name _Jack the Ripper_?"

Nathan shook his head. "Doc…" he spat some blood from his mouth and continued again, "Doc assigned it to us. He said it had pertinence to our mission…don't know why, though…"

"Do you and Liz have those chips in you?" Duo demanded.

Nathan nodded, the motion making his neck ache. "Yeah. When Doc commands us to do something, we can't refuse, or we'll get shocked."

"How long ago did he plant these in you?"

Nathan winced as said shock erupted through his body. "O-one week after you l-left…"

He relaxed as the electric shock passed by.

"Where is Trowa?" Quatre asked, nearly heart-broken.

"In a single cell," replied Nathan, his fingers tingling. "Just down the hall."

"Did you hurt him?"

"No," Nathan replied, relieved that he hadn't been shocked for that answer.

"Is he hurt?"

"Y-yes."

"Who hurt him?"

Nathan gritted his teeth, finally managing to get one word out, "Doc."

Here Duo and WuFei exchanged glances. If Nathan was under the control of the chip, maybe he wasn't really trying to hurt them. Well, of course, at some point, he had, but if he had been under the chips control at least, some of the time, then maybe he wasn't as ruthless as the others had made him out to be.

"If Doc asks you a question, do you have to answer it truthfully?" WuFei ventured.

"Yes."

"Are you on his side, or ours?"

Nathan looked away, still in Quatre's grip.

"Well?" Duo snapped.

Nathan shook his head. "I-I don't know…I just don't know…"

Duo gave out a cry of frustration. "God fucking _damn_ it!"

"What about Liz?" asked Quatre. "Is she also under the chip?"

Nathan nodded once.

"Does she trust us?"

"More than I do," whispered Nathan. "She wants Doc dead, I think."

"Do you?" asked WuFei.

Nathan again looked at the ground.

"Will he know if you answer us?"

Nathan nodded, flinching again.

"You swear you didn't hurt Trowa?" Quatre said softly. "You absolutely _swear_ it?"

Nathan nodded again.

"Fine," Quatre let him go, and stalked over to one of the bunks. He curled up on it, closing his eyes tightly.

Nathan felt his boots hit the floor and gently he rubbed his neck. He looked at the others. "I want to help you get out of here."

"How can you, if Doc'll know that you were involved?"

Nathan smirked and replied, "He'll only know if he asks me directly, and he doesn't tend to do that."

"Either way…"

"I understand your suspicions," said Nathan. "But I want you to know that I'm not trying to hurt you. I don't really know about Liz, but as for me? I just want you guys out of this mess as soon as possible. If any of you know where 006 is, tell me, and then Doc'll let you go."

Before the others could ask anymore questions, Nathan left the room, managing to get the controls to work with his thumbprint.

He went down the hallway, limping slightly. He turned a corner sharply and ran into Liz.

"Hey, Nathan, I—_Bloody hell_! What happened to you?" she gasped, looking his bruised and battered body over.

"Got into a spat with the others," he replied with a shrug.

Her blue eyes were wide, and her jaw dropped open. "McCallister, you should go to bed…I mean, wow…they really did a number on you, didn't they?"

He smiled weakly and replied, "It's alright. I got them back."

She nodded, though she didn't look entirely convinced. "If you say so…"

"Trust me," he walked away.

She smiled and replied in a soft whisper, "With all my life, McCallister, with all my life."

_Date: January 19, A.C. 200_

_Place: Hero Mountain, Moon_

It had been over a week since the five pilots had been brought to the base, and since then, they had been planning to escape the next time they were let out of their cell. However, it seemed that Doc had heard of their plans, as he never sent Million or McCallister back to retrieve them at all. They were given three meals a day, and a bathroom had been found to be attached to their cell.

Still, Trowa was locked away from the others. None of them knew where or why he was still being kept away from them.

At some point, Quatre had thought his friend was dead, but that most likely wasn't the case, as they sometimes found small scrolls of paper with their meals. They were from McCallister, giving them silent updates on their friend.

The last scroll was in Quatre's hands, and he merely stared at it. It said Trowa was fine, but Quatre still couldn't help but wonder.

Heero had come to, and usually found ways to amuse himself by using the higher bunks as pull-up bars. When he became bored with that, though, he had started to just sit in the corner of the room and watch the rest of them with his cold eyes. He hadn't spoken since coming back, and even though the others had relayed everything that had happened since he had gone out, he still didn't speak.

Quatre felt bad for him. Doc must have done something terrible to him when he had been interrogated.

Duo sat near the door, as always, WuFei on the other side. They had tried a number of times to open the door, but couldn't, even with the partially-broken controls.

_BOOM_.

Everyone jumped to their feet, even Heero.

The alarms on the base began to sound, and the light in their room changed from its dim white to a flashing red.

The base was under attack.

There was another explosion, and Duo leaned his ear against the door. "Sounds like Nathan and Liz are gonna go check it out!"

"What do you think it is?" Quatre asked.

"Not what," Heero said hoarsely, lifting his head, "but _who_."

xxx

Trowa jumped to his feet at the shaking of the ground and the sound of an explosion coming to his ears. He could hear Nathan and Liz yelling outside of his door. They were under attack!

Trowa raced over to the door, leaning against it, thinking he might be able to break out, or something.

There was silence, and for a long time, the only sign of anything happening was far away. Smaller explosions distracted Liz and Nathan from whatever was going on in the cell block.

Trowa leaned closer to the door, hearing footsteps outside.

He jumped when the door suddenly beeped at him, and slid open. On the other side was none other than 006. She was dressed in a white tee shirt and a pair of baggy military briefs. She nodded at him, a hint of pleasure at seeing him in her vacant eyes. She turned and began to run down the hallway.

Trowa followed. "Wait!"

She stopped, turning to look at him.

"The others! We have to get them, too!"

She paused and reached for the nearest computer. She typed.

She typed _fast_.

The information she needed came up on the screen, and she came back towards Trowa, grabbing him by the wrist. They ran back down the hallway, stopping outside of another door. She pressed her fingers to the controls, and a few seconds later, the door beeped at her, but it only opened halfway due to the busted panel on the other side.

She lifted her foot and kicked the door in until it gave. On the other side were the other pilots, their eyes wide.

She looked at them, and then down the hallway. Nathan and Liz were coming. She lifted her gun and shot at them, motioning the others out.

They ran.

She followed, pulling a grenade from her hip, tearing off the pin, and hurling it down the hallway.

"006!" Liz screamed. "It's her! Come on, Nathan! Get your ass in gear!"

"006, wait!"

She turned at looked at them, paused, and then gave them a stiff middle finger before tossing another grenade at them. She turned the corner with the other pilots, taking them to where she had docked her shuttle.

She ushered them aboard, and clambered in herself, shoving the gun into Duo's hands and the rest of her grenades into Heero's. She jumped into the cockpit, closed the door, and blasted towards the closed bay doors. She pulled a switch, yanked a handle towards herself and pushed a red button. Rockets exploded from her shuttle and towards the bay doors. They exploded in a shower of debris, the shuttle blowing out into space through the flames.

Behind them were two mobile suits.

She grabbed at another pair of controls, preparing to fire on them.

"WAIT!" shouted Quatre. "006, they're our friends! Don't shoot them down!"

She looked to Trowa, who nodded. "McCallister has been working with us, trying to help us out. He hasn't been able to, because Doc implanted the same chips in them that are in Heero and I."

She cocked her head to the side, not liking that one bit. However, she loosened up on the controls, eventually putting her hands back on the steering mechanism on the shuttle.

"Did you kill Doc?" asked Heero suddenly.

She looked back at him, and made a soft noise, turning the shuttle around. She was still close to the mountain. Without hesitating, she pulled the handle again and pressed the red button, and another two rockets exploded forwards, hitting the old mountain without mercy.

She then turned the shuttle to face the two Gundams. She pressed a switch under a screen, and two faces appeared. Liz and McCallister.

"What the bloody hell!" Liz screamed. "006, you just…you just annihilated Doc!"

Nathan's eyes were filled with tears and he smiled. He looked up at her and said softly, "Thank you, 006."

She nodded once, and then shifted her brown eyes to Liz, who was chewing on her lower lip. Finally, she rubbed at her eyes with the heel of her hand. The chip's effects were finally wearing off of her. "Wow…what the bloo—006! Where've you been?"

006 just shrugged, and she steered off towards the Earth, the two mobile suits in tow.

_Date: January 20, A.C. 200_

_Place: Antarctica, Earth_

The shuttle landed in the Antarctica region of Earth, where few people cared who landed where and what they did. The two mobile suits landed behind it, miraculously not having been spotted at all by anyone.

006 and the other ex-pilots exited the shuttle, dawning warm coats and stepping into the frigid atmosphere. The two mobile suit hatches opened and McCallister dropped from it, running over and tackling 006.

"You're alive!" he shouted joyously.

She shrugged, though a small smile played in her eyes. She was, at that.

Liz also hurried over. She looked at the pilots and said, "I can't believe this is happening! God damn, we've been under those chips for nearly a month now, haven't we, McCallister?"

Nathan nodded, pulling his arms from the girl's thin torso. "Yeah."

She looked over at the other pilots, her eyes landing on Trowa. She approached him and pulled something from her jacket. It was a broken cross and a broken communicator. She held them up, and opening her mouth, she said, "I…I am…sor-ry, Na-Nanashi."

He just stared at her as she dropped the cross and transmitter into his hands. Slowly it dawned on him who this girl was.

"But…you had blue eyes…and blonde hair…"

"Was…hologram…" she said. She hadn't spoken in years, and though her jaws felt stiff, the thick words felt nice in her throat and mouth. "Was not me…"

He nodded slowly, and dropping the cross and transmitter, her threw his arms around her, holding her tightly. "Middii…"

She paused before hugging him back, her face relaxing into the first real smile she had given in years. "Yes…I am Middii…"

Nathan looked from one to the other and said calmly, "You two…you know each other, then?"

006, or rather, Middii Une, nodded. She went into the shuttle and brought out a small laptop. She held it softly, and the words appeared, explaining everything:

When I left for that mission, you became increasingly ill, and had to spend the three months I was on mission in the hospital wing. You told me later that you thought you had dreamt it, but couldn't remember. I couldn't tell you that it had really happened. Doc made me swear, and the chips he had in you, he had the prototypes in me, so if I tried to speak or contact you other than through electric pulses when I was "hooked up," I was electrocuted.

Nathan nodded, relaxing. It made sense—there was an enormous three-month gap in his life that he had only just recently mentioned to Trowa.

Trowa looked down at Middii. It was odd, seeing her like this…an adult. "I thought you had three brother's and a sick father?"

She turned the screen to him.

I did.

"What happened to them?"

My father and two of my brother's died.

"Where's your last brother?"

Middii's eyes shifted to Nathan.

He was saved by Doc…they all would have been, if the medications would have worked. Doc was trying to save them all, to give me a home, but they all died. 007 was the only one to survive.

Nathan's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. "I'm…I'm your _brother_?"

She nodded.

My twin, Sebastian Une.

For a long time, no one really seemed to speak. Finally Nathan asked, "How do you…how do you remember this?"

You were very sick. You probably lost most of your memory from that time period…before that, you remembered me talking, but it was after that mission…after father and the other two died…I just couldn't handle it anymore.

"So you stopped talking," said Quatre sadly.

She nodded.

"How awful…"

"But things are getting better, right?" Duo asked. "I mean, you're not hooked up anymore, and the two of you are family again, right?"

"Besides, it explains all of your heart problems, Nate," said Liz softly. "I mean, there were always rumors and studies where twins had a hard time being apart…no wonder. You two must have been really close up until your dad died…"

Nathan nodded, and he wiped his eyes. He hadn't thought he could cry anymore, but he could. He could cry, and that was all he wanted to do. He had found his sister, where he belonged…everything made sense now, and now, they were free to take on the E.P.A. in a way that suited them the best.

_Date: November 21, A.C. 200_

_Place: G-Colony Cluster, Apartment of Trowa Barton_

Trowa leaned back in his chair, his elbows popping and snapping. A year ago, things had seemed to spiral into madness, yet now, everything was calm, and the colonies and Earth were under the bustle of preparation for Thanksgiving.

Middii Une walked into the room, her hands resting on Trowa's shoulders. She leaned her chin on top of his head and read over what he had just written.

"You misspelled his name," she said. "It's supposed to be S-E-B-A-S-T-I-A-N, not S-E-B-A-S-T-A-N."

Trowa laughed and shook his head. "You'd think with all of this technology, no one would need to know how to spell anymore."

"Everyone needs to know how to spell," she replied, walking into the kitchen. "Or else what's the point of words themselves?"

He smiled. Middii had been working intensively on her speech since they had moved in together. Sebastian, who had discredited the name Nathan McCallister a long time ago, lived only a few blocks away. Since his sister wasn't in pain, he was able to live his life free from the heart-problems Doc had all but forced him to endure over the years. He had even let Liz move in with him, though the constant phone calls to Trowa's and Duo's apartments suggested that they weren't getting along all the time. But, the calls had begun to lessen, and so Trowa was hopeful that they were getting along better now.

Heero and Duo had found that by keeping an apartment together, they had to pay less rent, and so they had more money to buy cool gadgets that both of them loved. Heero had had no problems moving from his own colony cluster to Duo's, understanding that Duo couldn't bear to leave behind the children in the orphanages.

Quatre remained away most of the time, his new experiences with the darker side of the E.P.A. (who had, in fact, hired Doc to do research on the human body and its effects when put under the conditions to make the "perfect soldier.") helping him to move aside most of their illogical and distorted issues. Needless to say, WuFei was beside him the entire time, fighting for the rights of humanity.

They had made enormous progress, those who had been involved with Doc from the beginning being fired and placed into an Alliance-Military prison.

Trowa's smile grew wider. Not all wars needed to be fought like the ones he had seen. This new political war made more sense to him—less death, less casualties, and so on.

All-in-all, things were becoming better by the day.

Trowa and Middii, though. He wasn't sure where they stood. It had been a long time since he had seen her, all those years ago. Granted, she no longer had the blue eyes and blonde hair, but her features had remained similar.

He figured Doc had wanted to test his new invention for the future E.P.A. (which at that point had been a smaller organization within the Oz-sided men (the Specials) of the former Alliance.) and so she had been sent with the holographic projector—her wristwatch—to infiltrate those who opposed the former Alliance.

Even now, he hadn't forgiven her for everything, though he did understand that not all of it was her fault. Some of it was the fault of the chip, and most of the blame lay on Doc himself, the twisted bastard.

Trowa was glad he was dead.

The brunette leaned forward and fixed the mistake before sending the letters out to all of their friends (and miniscule family). He felt the world slowing into a time of peace, into a time when the colonies and Earth could live together in harmony at long-last…

_Bring!_

_Bring!_

"Hello?"

"_Middi? It's Liz…you've to help me! Your brother's a fucking loonie! He keeps calling me a prat and little Miss Crumpet—what the bloody hell _is_ a crumpet, anyways? Hello? Hello? Hey, Mid, you there?_"

Middii looked up at Trowa and blinked as he began to chuckle to himself.

Or maybe peace was further off than he had thought.

Owari?


End file.
